OTIS (OH-tihs)
Elisha
Otis: American inventor and manufacturer of first elevator with a
safety device
Otis
Redding: American soul singer
Common
clues: Elevator
man; Singer Redding; Elevator pioneer Elisha; Inventor Elisha;
Redding of R&B
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
7 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
30713 / 86800
News:
Otis
launches energy-efficient elevator in India
Video:
(Sittin’
on) the Dock of the Bay
Elisha
Graves Otis (August
3, 1811 — April 8, 1861) invented a safety device in 1852
that made elevators much safer by preventing them from falling if
the hoisting cable parted. Otis was born near Halifax, Vermont.
He moved away from home at the age of 19. He then moved to Troy,
New York and lived there for 5 years.
At
New York’s Crystal Palace, Elisha Otis amazed the crowd
when he ordered an axeman to cut the only rope suspending the
platform on which he was standing. The platform dropped a few
inches, but then came to a stop. His new safety brake stopped the
platform from crashing to the ground and revolutionized the
industry.
He
went on to create the Otis Elevator Company, currently a division
of United Technologies Corporation and is also the largest
elevator company in the world. Mr. Otis sold his first safe
elevators in 1853.
The
first passenger elevator was installed by Otis in New York in
1857. After Elisha Otis' death in 1861, his sons, Charles and
Norton, built on his heritage, creating Otis Brothers & Co.
in 1867.
His
invention increased public confidence in elevators, which was
instrumental in the rise of skyscrapers.
The
Otis family currently owns a home on the Intracoastal Waterway in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Otis
Ray Redding, Jr. (September
9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an influential American
deep soul singer, best known for his passionate delivery and
posthumous hit single, "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay."
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was
inducted in 1989) website, Redding's name is "synonymous
with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience
in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm &
blues into a form of funky, secular testifying."
Redding,
his manager, the pilot, and four members of his backup band, The
Bar-Kays, were killed when his chartered plane crashed into Lake
Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967. The two
remaining Bar-Kays were Ben Cauley and James Alexander. Cauley
was the only person aboard Redding's plane to survive the crash.
Alexander was on another plane, since there were eight members in
Redding's party and the chartered plane could only hold seven,
and it was Alexander's turn in the rotation to take a commercial
flight.
Cauley
reported that he had been asleep until just seconds before
impact, and recalled that upon waking he saw bandmate Phalon
Jones look out a window and say, "Oh, no!" Cauley said
the last thing he remembered prior to crashing was unbuckling his
seatbelt. He then found himself in the frigid waters of the lake,
grasping a seat cushion to keep afloat.
Redding's
body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched.
The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.
Redding
was 26 years old at the time of his death. He was entombed on his
private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of
Macon.
"(Sittin'
on) the Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days prior
to Redding's death. It was released the next month and became his
first #1 single and first million-seller. The fact that "(Sittin'
on) the Dock of the Bay" ultimately became Redding's
greatest commercial success was unexpected, not only because its
release came after his death, but also because the song is
actually a significant stylistic departure from the bulk of his
other work.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Elisha Otis"
&
“Otis
Redding”
|