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Lift or elevator? The history and origin

04 May 2023

The Cambridge English Dictionary definition of a lift (noun) is a device like a box that moves up and down, carrying people or goods from one floor of a building to another.

But Americans and Canadians use the term ‘elevator’, and British, Australians, Irish, New Zealanders and South Africans use ‘lift’ when discussing the same thing. Why is this?  And what’s the lift's history?

Perhaps the reason for the ‘elevator vs lift’ linguistic mystery can be traced back to the nationality of its inventor or the evolution of language in different nations.  

Who invented the first lift or elevator?
The first primitive lift was constructed by the Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes in the 3rd century BC. The simple lifting platforms were used in the tunnels and animal pens beneath the Colosseum for gladiator battles.

Other early examples
One of the first one-person passenger lifts was built in 1743 for King Louis XV in Versailles and was described as a “flying chair” - a counterweight lift - that allowed the King to access the apartment of his mistress.  

Louis XV and his guests could also dine without being watched by servants at the Chateau de Choisy thanks to a “flying table”. The dinner table was loaded with food by servants in the basement, then hoisted into the dining hall through a sliding hatch, with bells to signal that the table was on its way.  

In 1793 Ivan Kulibin constructed and installed the first lift driven by a screw-drive mechanism in Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg. The lift design was the precursor to the modern passenger lift and marked a significant historical step.

19th Century hydraulic lifts
The industrial revolution furthered the development of the lift. Steam-powered lifts made it possible to transport goods in bulk in mines and factories. The first hydraulic lifts, known as “ascending rooms”, were constructed in 1823 in Britain by Burton and Hormer, two London architects and designed as a tourist attraction for paying customers, allowing them a panoramic view of London. However, the ropes were considered unsafe for passenger travel.

The first "safety elevator"
In 1852 Elisha Graves Otis, an American inventor, demonstrated his new free-fall prevention mechanism at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York, ensuring the cab wouldn’t fall if the cable snapped. He raised a platform above a crowd, then cut the cable with an axe, revolutionising the vertical transport industry. Groups of people could now move vertically with improved safety.

On 23 March 1857, at the Haughwout Department Store in New York City, United States, Otis installed the world’s earliest “passenger elevator” powered by a steam engine. It could travel five floors in less than a minute and was immediately pronounced a success.

The first "electric lift"
In 1880 Werner von Siemens, a German electrical engineer built the first electric passenger lift. Still, other innovations were at the forefront of his mind, and although he didn’t continue developing the lift itself, his ideas influenced lift design in the years since.

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