Who is credited with inventing the elevator?

Main Takeaways

While you’re waiting in an elevator, do you ever think about who invented it? Probably not. We simply expect elevators to work safely in high-rise buildings -- and we get frustrated when we have to take the stairs instead. Although one person is often credited with the invention, the truth is more nuanced.

Elevators have been around since ancient Roman times. Archimedes is said to have built one in 336 B.C., and by A.D. 80, gladiators and animals were being lifted to the Roman Coliseum arena. These early "elevators" were far from modern enclosed cabins; they were simple platforms and hoists, mainly used for tasks like raising water for irrigation or lifting heavy materials like stones. The power for these lifts came from animals, people, or even water wheels.

What we’re really discussing is the modern passenger elevator. The first one was constructed for King Louis XV in 1743 and was called "The Flying Chair." Located on the exterior of his palace at Versailles, it connected the king's apartment to his mistress’s. The king would enter from his balcony, and men inside a chimney operated the elevator, raising and lowering it with ropes and pulleys.

Elevators became more widespread in the mid-1800s during the Industrial Revolution, where they were used to transport freight in factories and mines. These early systems were often hydraulic, using a piston inside a cylinder that was moved by pressure from water or oil. However, these systems had a major drawback: buildings with hydraulic elevators needed deep pits below the elevator shaft for the piston to retract fully. The taller the building, the deeper the pit had to be. While impractical for high-rise buildings, this design became popular in mansions, as it could run off the public water supply.

Another common elevator design, which is still found in most passenger lifts today, uses a cable system. Ropes raise and lower the car through a pulley and gear system, and a counterweight is raised and lowered with the car, working like a seesaw to save energy. These elevators are easier to control and do not require the extra space that hydraulic systems need.

By the 1850s, some elevators were powered by water pressure or steam, but they remained relatively rare. Read on to learn why -- and how the individual who solved the problem may or may not be regarded as the inventor of the elevator.

Elisha Otis and Otis Tufts

At the time, elevators using cable systems were deemed unreliable and dangerous, as a rope failure would send the elevator crashing down. While freight could be damaged, the more serious concern was that passengers often met a fatal end due to the fall. The person who found a solution to this issue drastically changed the concept of the elevator. But was it Elisha Otis, or Otis Tufts?

In 1852, while working in a factory, Elisha Otis and his sons designed an elevator that included a safety mechanism. A wooden frame above the platform would extend to the sides of the elevator shaft if the ropes snapped, acting as a brake. Otis named this invention the "safety hoist" and showcased it dramatically at the 1854 New York World's Fair. He ascended with the platform, then had the rope severed, but thanks to the brake, it only descended slightly before halting. Otis went on to establish Otis Brothers, the company that installed the first public elevator in a five-story New York department store in 1874. Electric elevators came into use in the 1880s.

This suggests that Elisha Otis is the inventor of the modern passenger elevator, right? Well, it depends on who you ask. Before his World's Fair demonstration, Otis struggled to sell elevators, and his first elevator patent in 1861 was for a freight elevator – an open platform, not an enclosed passenger one. For this reason, some consider another Otis, Otis Tufts, as the true inventor of the modern passenger elevator. Tufts patented an elevator design two years earlier, which included benches inside a fully enclosed car with doors that opened and closed automatically.

There’s a key reason Elisha Otis is credited and not Tufts. Tufts’ design abandoned the conventional rope and pulley system in favor of safety, using a nut that threaded up and down a large steel screw. The elevator car was the nut, attached to a screw that spanned the full length of the shaft. Although it was very safe, the design was costly and impractical, especially for tall buildings. While Tufts sold a few of his elevators, his design did not achieve widespread adoption.

The Otis Brothers Company, now known as the Otis Elevator Company, has consistently innovated in the field of elevator safety and efficiency. Today, it stands as the world's leading manufacturer of elevators and escalators. Meanwhile, Tufts is more famously recognized for his inventions, including the steam-powered printing press and the steam-powered pile driver.