Birth and history of the elevator: a tool that changed modern mobility
29 July 2024
The elevator today is part of normality and everyday life, but this was not the case in the past.
We review here the history of the elevator, which has played an important role in the development of modern society: skyscrapers or the ability to transport an immobile or critically ill patient quickly to the hospital would never have existed.
History of the elevator: early elevators
The earliest sources we have on the history of the elevator date back to the 3rd millennium B.C.E. Elevators were operated manually by slaves or animals or by water wheels.
Other sources date back to the late 17th century and come from the remains of the Palace of Versailles, in which the Transalpine kings had primitive elevators and freight elevators installed.
The most famous of all is the one Louis XV had built to allow his favorite, the Duchess of Chateauroux, direct access to her apartment.
The beginnings of the modern elevator
The development of the elevator as we know it today is related to two particular moments:
- in the 19th century, the introduction of steam or hydraulic-powered engines was fundamental to elevator movement, replacing human labor and energy and consequently allowing them to be more widely deployed
- in 1853, the invention by American Elisha Otis of the first safety system, a device that stopped the elevator’s free fall almost instantly, contributed to the spread of the elevator into civilian settings.
The contemporary history of today’s elevator
In 1880, after the Industrial Revolution, Germany’s Werner von Siemens invented the electric motor, thus giving rise to the electric elevator: more efficient, less expensive in terms of installation, and capable of maintaining a constant speed during travel, regardless of the load.
Having such a facility, facilitated in the first half of the twentieth century the rapid spread of the elevator in the United States, where the great influx of population from the countryside to the cities made it necessary to build high.
The abolition of the crank operator in 1942 and the introduction of self-opening doors instead of manual ones contributed even more to the popularity of the elevator.
Maspero Elevatori’s contribution
Over the past 60 years, the history of the elevator has been intertwined with that of Maspero Elevatori, a company founded in Appiano Gentile, in the province of Como, by Libero Maspero, who decided to embark on an entrepreneurial career after a long working experience in the elevator industry.
In the 1970s the company expanded not only in Italy but also internationally, and in 1999 it patented the MRL KOALA 2001 rope elevator, a testament to intense and continuous design and development activities in the elevator field.
Today the company is led by the founder’s sons and there are now countless installations built all over the world.
Retrace the historical steps of Maspero Elevatori
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