Inventors and manufacturers
Nathan Ames, a patent attorney from Saugus, Massachusetts, is credited with patenting the first "escalator" in 1859, although a working model of his design was never built. His invention, "swivel staircases," is largely speculative, and the patent specifications indicate that he had no preference for materials or potential use (he noted that the steps could be upholstered or made of wood, and he suggested that the units could benefit the sick). within a domestic use). The suggested driving force was manual or hydraulic.[14].
In 1889, Leamon Souder successfully patented the "ladder", an analogous device featuring a "series of steps and links articulated together." No model was ever built.[15] This was the first of at least four escalator patents granted to Souder, including two for spiral designs.[16]
On March 15, 1892, Jesse W. Reno patented the "endless conveyor or elevator" [17] A few months after the approval of Reno's patent, George A. Wheeler patented his ideas for a more recognizable moving staircase, although it was never built. Wheeler's patents were purchased by Charles Seeberger; some features of Wheeler's designs were incorporated into the Seeberger prototype which was built by the Otis Elevator Company in 1899.
Jesse W. Reno, a graduate of Lehigh University, manufactured the first operational escalator (called an "inclined elevator") and installed it next to the Old Iron Pier in Coney Island, New York City in 1896.[19] This particular device was little more than an inclined belt with cast iron slats or cleats on the surface for traction, and moved along a 25-degree incline. A few months later, the same prototype was used for a month-long test period on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Reno eventually partnered with Otis and retired once he sold his patents. Some Reno-type escalators were still in use on the Boston Subway until construction for the Big Dig (circa 1991) precipitated their retirement. The Smithsonian Institution considered reassembling one of these historic 1914 units in its Americana collection, but "logistics and assembly costs trumped nostalgia," and the project was scrapped.[20]
Around May 1895, Charles Seeberger began drawing a form of escalator similar to those patented by Wheeler in 1892. This device consisted of flat, moving stairs, not unlike today's escalators, except for one important detail: the surface of the steps was smooth, without any comb effect to safely guide the passenger's feet at the ends. Instead, the passenger had to get off laterally. To facilitate this, at the top or bottom of the escalator the rungs continued to move horizontally beyond the end of the handrail (like a miniature moving sidewalk) until they disappeared under a triangular "divider" that guided the passenger to either side. Seeberger partnered with Otis in 1899, and together they manufactured the first commercial escalator. It won first prize at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900&action=edit&redlink=1 "Exposition Universelle (1900) (not yet written)"). Also on display at the Exhibition were the Reno inclined elevator, a similar model by James M. Dodge and the Link Belt Machinery Co., and two different devices by the French manufacturers Hallé and Piat.
Piat installed its "stepless" escalator at Harrods Knightsbridge on Wednesday 16 November 1898, although the company gave up its patent rights in the department store. As Bill Lancaster notes in The Department Store: a Social History, "customers bewildered by the experience were revived by shopkeepers who dispensed free smelling salts and cognac."[21] The Harrods unit was a continuous leather belt made of "224 tightly joined pieces traveling in an upward direction," and was England's first "moving staircase."[22]
Hocquardt received the rights to the European patent for the Fahrtreppe in 1906. After the Exhibition, Hallé continued to sell his escalator device in Europe, but was eventually eclipsed in sales by other large manufacturers.
In the first half of the century, several manufacturers developed their own escalator products, although they had to market their devices under different names, due to Otis having the trademark rights to the word "escalator." The New York-based Peelle company called its models the Motorstair, while [Westinghouse&action=edit&redlink=1 "Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1886) (not yet redacted)") called its model the Electric Stairway. The company Haughton Elevator, based in Toledo, Ohio, called its product simply Moving Stairs. The Otis brand is no longer in effect.
Kone and Schindler") introduced their first escalator models several decades after the Otis Elevator Co., but over time they came to dominate the industry. Today, they, Mitsubishi and ThyssenKrupp are Otis' main rivals.
Kone expanded internationally through acquisitions in the 1970s, purchasing Swedish elevator maker Asea-Graham, and acquiring other smaller French, German, and Austrian elevator makers before assuming control of Westinghouse's European elevator business. As the last of the "big four" manufacturers to emerge on the global market, Kone first acquired the company Montgomery Elevator, and then took control of the German company Orenstein & Koppel) Rolltreppen.
In the century Schindler became the largest manufacturer of escalators and the second largest manufacturer of elevators in the world, although its first installation of escalators did not occur until 1936.[23] In 1979, the company entered the US market with the purchase of Haughton Elevator. A decade later, Schindler assumed control of Westinghouse's North American escalator/elevator operations, forming Schindler's American Division.
Alternative designs
Jesse Reno also designed the first spiral-shaped escalator installed on any tube system at Holloway Road tube station in London in 1906. The experimental device was never used publicly and its remains are now in the depot of the London Transport Museum in Acton.[24][25].
Although it is the first fully operational spiral escalator, Reno's design was but one of a series of similar contraptions proposed. Souder patented two helical designs, while Wheeler drew up plans for helical stairs in 1905. Seeberger devised at least two helical designs between 1906 and 1911 (including an arrangement not made for the London Underground), and Gilbert Luna" obtained patents from West Germany, Japan, and the United States for his version of a spiral escalator in 1973. When interviewed by the Los Angeles Times that year, Luna was in the process of petitioning major companies to acquire his patents and his company, but statistics are unclear on the outcome of these efforts.[26] Karl-Heinz Pahl") received a European and a US patent for a spiral escalator in 1992.[27].
The Mitsubishi Electric Corporation was the most successful company in developing spiral/helical escalators, and has been the only company to sell them since the mid-1980s. The world's first spiral escalator – a Mitsubishi model – was installed in Osaka, Japan, in 1985.[28].
Helixator, an experimental spiral/helical escalator design that currently exists as a prototype scale model, could further reduce the demand for floor space. Its design has several innovations that allow a continuous propeller; Driven by a linear motor instead of a chain system, it distributes force evenly along the length of the escalator, avoiding excessive force on the upper links of the chain and, therefore, avoiding the geometry, length and height limits of standard escalators.[29].
Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco, California, United States - is the first spiral escalator in the Western Hemisphere.[30].
Levytator, a design originating from City University of London, can move in straight or curved lines with or without rising or falling. The return steps do not move below the steps in use, but rather provide steps for travel in the opposite direction, as in Pahl's spiral escalator patent.[31].