Elisha Graves Otis Born Aug 3 1811 - Died Apr 8 1861 Improvement
in Hoisting Apparatus Patent Number(s) 31,128 Elisha Graves Otis
didn't invent the elevator, he invented something perhaps more
important-the elevator brake-which made skyscrapers a practical
reality. Otis had no way of knowing that this simple safety
device was to alter the face of the globe, that because of it
vast cities would spring up toward the sky instead of spreading
toward the horizon as in the past. Born on a farm near Halifax,
Vermont, the youngest of six children, Otis made several
attempts at establishing businesses in his early years. However,
chronically poor health led to continual financial woes.
Finally, in 1845, he tried to change his luck with a move to
Albany, New York. There he worked as a master mechanic in the
bedstead factory of O. Tingley & Company. He remained about
three years and during that time invented and put into use a
railway safety brake, which could be controlled by the engineer,
and ingenious devices to run