Elisha Otis
	Elisha Otis was 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, where he worked as a master mechanic in the bedstead factory of O.Tingley & Co. He decided to invent a device that would prevent the elevator from falling if the rope broke! He hit upon the answer, a tough steel wagon spring meshing with a ratchet. If the rope gave way, the spring would catch and hold. Otis dramatised his safety device on the floor of the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York. With a large audience on hand, the inventor ascended in an elevator cradled in an open-sided shaft. Halfway up, he had the hoisting rope cut with an axe. The platform held fast and the elevator industry was on its way. Otis had no way of knowing that this simple safety device was to change the attitude of the public towards being lifted within multi-storey buildings. He died at the age of 50 on April 8,1861. By: John Courtney
		Presented By John Courtney