Jesse W. Reno, an 1883 engineering graduate of Lehigh University invented the first escalator and installed it as an amusement ride at Coney Island, New York in 1897. This particular device was an inclined belt with wooden slats or cleats on the surface for traction. The incline was as steep as 25°. Reno sold this machine to the Otis Elevator Company in 1899, and together they produced the first commercial escalator. This escalator won a first prize at the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle in France. Some escalators of this vintage were still being used in the Boston subway until 1994.