The DU Lounge

Coventina

(28,704 posts) Sun Sep 7, 2025, 06:08 PM Sep 7

Coventina's History Thread: Otis Elevators - The Conclusion of this series

Otis elevators continued to make enhancements: push-button controls, and speed.

Cities constantly changed their elevator "speed limits" - from a leisurely 40 feet per minute for Elisha Otis' original safety lists, to a speedy 1200 feet per minute in the 1930s, to today's 2000 feet per minute. "That's probably as much vertical speed as most people can tolerate," says an Otis engineer.

Along the way, the elevator industry quashed early fears that speedy lifts were bad for people. In the 1890s, Scientific American wrote that the body parts of elevator passengers came to a halt at different rates, triggering mysterious ailments.

Like the earlier notion that fast trains would choke passengers by pushing oxygen away from their mouths, that theory has since been debunked.

?w=700&format=webp

6 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Coventina's History Thread: Otis Elevators - The Conclusion of this series (Original Post) Coventina Sep 7 OP

Interesting, didn't know about the changes in elevator speeds. electric_blue68 Sep 7 #1

Nor did I. LoisB Sep 7 #2

40 ft / min makes me think of early automobile laws: had to be preceded by a man walking waving a flag. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Sep 7 #3

Thank you for that information. Is it true that cars couldn't travel faster than a walking pace? LoisB Sep 7 #5

They could easily. But there was a lot of early resistance to adoption bc of all the negatives we know & horses. Bernardo de La Paz Sep 7 #6

I really liked this series. It is fascinating to discover how interesting the history of things I LoisB Sep 7 #4

electric_blue68

(23,874 posts)

1. Interesting, didn't know about the changes in elevator speeds.

Reply to Coventina (Original post)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 06:29 PM

Sep 7

LoisB

(11,628 posts)

2. Nor did I.

Reply to electric_blue68 (Reply #1)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 07:00 PM

Sep 7

Bernardo de La Paz

(58,398 posts)

3. 40 ft / min makes me think of early automobile laws: had to be preceded by a man walking waving a flag. . . . nt

Reply to electric_blue68 (Reply #1)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 07:04 PM

Sep 7

LoisB

(11,628 posts)

5. Thank you for that information. Is it true that cars couldn't travel faster than a walking pace?

Reply to Bernardo de La Paz (Reply #3)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 07:09 PM

Sep 7

Bernardo de La Paz

(58,398 posts)

6. They could easily. But there was a lot of early resistance to adoption bc of all the negatives we know & horses.

Reply to LoisB (Reply #5)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 07:19 PM

Sep 7

Some people wanted to protect horse and buggy industries including horse raising and care.

Some people disliked the noise, the stink, the hazards, the class distinctions, the pollution, etc. Rings a bell today.

The information in today's post got me thinking about new tech and resistance and waves: elevators, automobiles, self-driving, AI, ....

LoisB

(11,628 posts)

4. I really liked this series. It is fascinating to discover how interesting the history of things I

Reply to Coventina (Original post)

Sun Sep 7, 2025, 07:05 PM

Sep 7

have never given a second thought about is so interesting. I feel almost ready for Jeopardy.

Reply to this discussion