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Elisha Graves Otis Facts & Worksheets

Elisha Graves Otis was a self-taught mechanic and founder of Otis Elevator Company. He pioneered the safety device used to prevent elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.

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Elisha Graves Otis was a self-taught mechanic and founder of Otis Elevator Company. He pioneered the safety device used to prevent elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. It was considered the most significant breakthrough of the nineteenth century as it made skyscrapers possible.

See the fact file below for more information on the Elisha Graves Otis or alternatively, you can download our 25-page Elisha Graves Otis worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

OTIS’S EARLY LIFE

  • Elisha Graves Otis was born on August 3, 1811, in Halifax, Vermont, on a prosperous family farm.
  • His father was Stephen Otis, a local justice of the peace and a member of the Vermont State Assembly aside from being a farmer. His mother was Phoebe Glynn.
  • He attended public schools at Halifax. At 19, he moved to Troy, New York and took up wagon driving carpentry as a profession. However, due to his poor health he could not carry on such demanding work.
  • In 1834, he married Susan Houghton, with whom he had two children, Charles and Norton. Houghton would pass away eight years later, leaving Otis with two young sons.

A KANCK FOR ENGINEERING

  • While suffering from poor health in the first years of their marriage, he still managed to move his family to Vermont Hills on the Green River.
  • While in Vermont, he designed and built his own gristmill, which was powered by the river. He found that it was not successful enough, so he converted it to a sawmill, which also failed to profit.
  • Being skilled with carpentry, he went back to building wagons and carriages to supplement his family’s needs.
  • In 1845, he married Elizabeth Boyd and relocated his family to Albany, New York. He found a job as a master mechanic in a bedstead factory. He invented and patented a robot turner, making bedsteads four times as fast as could be done manually. His boss was so happy with his invention that he gave Otis a bonus.
  • He used his bonus to open a small machine shop that was powered by water from Patroons Creek. He perfected the first of his many inventions, such as a turbine water-wheel and an automatic lathe device that could uniformly cut or shape objects by spinning the object on a horizontal axis.
  • He started designing an automatic bread baking oven and a safety brake that could stop trains instantly, which he applied for patents for in 1858 and 1852.
  • In 1851, government officials took their rights on the Patroons Creek for the city’s water supply. Otis had no choice but to stop the business.
  • Luckily, a friend in the bedstead factory established a similar facility in Bergen, New Jersey and offered him the master mechanic position. Otis accepted it and moved to Bergen City.
  • He was then entrusted with overseeing his employer’s new factory in Yonkers, New York, where he relocated his family again.
  • Charles, Otis’s eldest son, was already 15 years old at that time. He also got employed full-time at the same company as his father.

THE START OF THE ELEVATOR

  • At the construction site, Otis was faced with a significant challenge to hoist up heavy pieces of machinery safely to the new building’s upper floors.
  • Although hoisting up devices had already existed for many years, the primary concern in using these devices was safety. Its rope could easily snap, the load could crash down, destroy the goods, and kill some workers.
  • Otis experimented with a few ideas to solve the problem. He designed and built a hoist with a safety catch in the form of a wagon spring and saw-toothed ratchet bar beams. Once the cable broke, the big spring would snap open in a jawlike motion. Both ends of the spring would engage the saw-toothed ratchet-bar beams installed on either side of the elevator shaft and bring the elevator to a stop.
  • Otis underestimated this invention. He neither applied for a patent nor asked his employer for compensation.
  • Benjamin Newhouse, a partner of the bedstead company he was working at and an owner of a furniture company, offered him to design and build an elevator for his company.
  • Otis received several inquiries about his new invention. In September 1853, he established a company in Yonkers, New York, initially called Union Elevator Works and later, E.G., Otis Company. Its primary purpose was to build and sell lifting devices for factory use.

DEMONSTRATING NEW INVENTION

  • Otis received no orders for a few months. In 1854, a New York World’s Fair held at New York City’s Crystal Palace allowed him to showcase his safety elevator.
  • Otis shocked the crowd after ordering the axeman to cut the only rope holding the platform he was standing on. The platform fell a few inches before coming to a halt, proving that his elevator’s safety locking mechanism was working.
  • The demonstration captured a great deal of attention from the press and prompted several orders. He sold 42 elevators from 1855-1856.
  • In 1857, he made history when he installed the first passenger elevator in the E.V. Haughwout store. The elevator was still in use until 1984.
  • Otis sought a patent for an elevator that was powered by a small steam engine. Another first for the company, as elevators that time could only be built at factories and warehouses with their own power sources such as water or steam.
  • With his latest innovation, stores, hotels, and office buildings could install elevators, even without a nearby natural power source.

OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY

  • Despite these accomplishments, Otis believed that the company was not profiting enough because of sluggish sales. However, his son and his business partner, Charles Otis, concluded that the earnings were rising but noted that his father was very skilled in engineering but had no knack for business.
  • Otis died in 1861 and left behind debts of $8,200 and a $5,000 estate. Charles and Norton Otis ran the elevator company and kept improving their father’s invention, being tinkers just like him. During their time, buildings were only four floors high. The demand for elevators thoroughly increased as the construction of tall buildings became the new trend. Eventually, skyscrapers began to grace cities.
  • Presently, Otis Elevator Company also offers escalators and moving walks at airports. The Otis brand can be found in the world’s most recognizable buildings, such as the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in China, the Statue of Unity in India, and the Empire State Building in New York.

Elisha Graves Otis Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Elisha Graves Otis across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Elisha Graves Otis worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Elisha Graves Otis who was a self-taught mechanic and founder of Otis Elevator Company. He pioneered the safety device used to prevent elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. It was considered the most significant breakthrough of the nineteenth century as it made skyscrapers possible.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Elisha Graves Otis Facts
  • Otis’s Bio
  • The Otis Inquiry
  • An Important Invention
  • Life of an Inventor
  • Other Inventions
  • Elevator Lingo
  • All Safe, Gentlemen
  • Fact or Bluff
  • Life’s Challenges
  • Made Possible by Otis

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