The fascinating invention story of escalators that you didn’t know about
There are primarily two kinds of people in the world – the ones who are scared to death to ride the escalator, and the others who simply love everything about it. What’s not to love about riding up and down on these long, moving staircases? After all, it requires minimal and the gliding motion is very easeful, to say the least!
However, not many people know that escalator is one of the largest and most expensive machines in the world that is used for public usage. You find them in subways, metro stations, shopping malls and hotels among others.
Despite its size and manufacturing cost, escalator actually involves fairly simple mechanics. It is nothing but a long conveyor belt (yes like the ones that carry your luggage at the airport and stations), comprising of rotating chains that pull a set of stairs in a constant cycle (read circular motion), creating an in-motion staircase.
Now, here comes the most vital question: Who came up with the fascinating idea of a moving staircase? Read on to know more.
The earliest use of escalator
The earliest known use of an escalator, that is considered as a modern equipment, actually dates back to ancient Egypt during the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza. However, in contrast to today’s tech-enabled, highly sophisticated escalator, a rudimentary and mobile track made up of tree trunks was used back then to transfer stone cubes from the surface to the underground site.
The world is introduced to revolving stairs
The year was 1859, and the world got introduced to the first set of revolving stairs when an American inventor named Nathan Ames patented the first ever official escalator. But guess what? His idea of ‘revolving stairs’ was only on paper and its working model never really got to see the light of the day.
Similarly, three decades later, another US-based innovator named Leamon Souder too patented not one, but four separate ideas for what he called ‘escalator-like-devices’. However, unfortunately, just like Ames, Souder, too, could not manage to make a real-life working escalator, alas!
Meet the world’s first working escalator
Wondering when the world was finally blessed with a working escalator? Well, that would be 1891 New York, thanks to another American inventor named Jesse W. Reno. Reno, in the year 1892, had patented the “endless conveyor” or “elevator.” But he soon realised that, there are certain public spaces where elevators are not really the practical solution. Inspired by his predecessors’ concepts, he produced the world’s first working escalator and called it the “inclined elevator.”
You will be amazed to know that this first-ever working escalator was nothing like today’s escalator. It was more of an amusement ride: A steam-powered moving staircase with an elevation of 6 feet and inclination of 25 degrees. It was made of cast steel and moved at a speed of nearly 90 feet per minute (quite fast for the first escalator, isn’t it?). Installed along the Old Iron Pier at Coney Island, one of the most visited tourist hubs in USA, it carried people up a short rise from the ground to the island’s Iron Pier. It was such a sensation that within a week it attracted as many as 75,000 visitors!
The name escalator is born
An American businessman named Charles Seeberger was the first one to realise that escalators need to be mass produced. This is when he decided to redesign Reno’s model and went on to buy the patents of inventor George A. Wheeler who was ready with his own prototype of an escalator. This soon became the model on which all modern-day escalators were designed. In fact, this escalator was later credited to Seeberger himself and came to be known as “Seeberger’s prototype escalator” that was bulk manufactured in 1899 by Otis Elevator Company.
A year later in 1900, Seeberger also came up with the name ‘escalator’. He derived it from three Latin terms: “scala”, “e” and “tor”. Put together and roughly translated, they stand for ‘means of traversing from’. He wanted the word to sound like es-CAL-a-tor, with emphasis on “CAL.” The goal was to make it sound as close to elevator, but with a significant distinction.
What’s interesting is that, Seeberger took it to a world industrial fair called Paris Exposition Universelle in France in 1900 and won the first prize. From here, there was no looking back for escalator and the moving staircase went global!
Bonus fact: The world’s longest escalator system is called Central Mid-Levels Escalator System and is located in Hong Kong. It’s 2600 feet long.