Word of the Day
Otis (OH-tihs)
Common clue: Elevator man
Elisha Graves Otis was born in Halifax, VT in 1811. In 1852 he invented an automatic safety device to prevent hoisting machinery from falling. This led to the invention of the first passenger elevator which was installed in 1857. This was of great importance to architecture in that it permitted the building of skyscrapers. Otis died in 1861.
In 1854, Elisha Graves Otis, then an unsuccessful 42-year-old mechanic, demonstrated the world's first safety elevator at a New York City fair. In a top hat, with a beard trimmed level as a ruler, Otis stood on a platform which, by means of a rope coiled around a power-driven drum, was hoisted high above a mass of on-lookers. Suddenly, he ordered the rope slashed. The crowd gasped. The platform fell a few inches, and then stopped. Otis doffed his hat and cried: "All safe, gentlemen, all safe!" [Source: Anecdotage.com]
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