The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-03-09
A RAIL Way WIZARD
Tuft Created a Sensation With
His Vertical Road.
FIRST PASSENGER ELEVATOR

IL Was Erected In the Old Fifth Az.
enue Hotel, In New York, In 1859 and
Was Regarded as the Marvel of the
Day-Its introduction to England.
Americans may lose the use of their
legs. A number of authorities on this
subject have made the prophecy that
unless the American mends his ways
and changes the direction in which
certain Of his habits and tendencies
lie his legs WI become as atrophled
as has become BIS little toe from close
confinement in shoes and long disuse.
These authorities have pointed out
the street car, the automobile and the
average mans eagerness to 'get there
in the quickest way and with the
least possible. effort is the causes for
the present deterioration in legs. and
as mechanical locomotion becomes
more and more accessible and the rid
ing habit grows man will, have less
and less use for his feet and legs, IA;
In addition to electric cars and auto
|
tributes to the average mans, increasr
ing feebleness, Of limb. That modem
device is the elevator. To the present
generation, accustomed to ride from
floor to floor and TO push the, elevator
bell button and wait for the car rather
than climb q. flight of stairs, it. proba-
bly, seems queer to see or hear the ele-
vator mentioned as 4 modern device.
Men in their youth and even in. their
middle age have become SO. habituated
to the elevator that they feel that such
a thing always was. or ut least that 1t
Is coeval with brick, andestope build
ings. Yet the elevator Ia a modern
device, and the word elevator In the
application given it in America Is new.
err still than the continuance it do
scribes.
Before the demolition Of the old
Fifth Avenue hotel In New York there
was in one Of the elevators tablet. on
which was inscribed this: I'm this
space was erected and operated In 1850
Tufts vertical screw railway. the first
passenger elevator ever built"
That elevator was one. Of the chief
wonders of the hotel. which. because
Of its luxury and magnificence, was
considered one Of the wonders of the
new world.
The vertical railway" which saved
persons the trouble of walking up and
down stairs. was widely written about,
and people came from far and near to
look at the strange invention and to
be able to tell their adIniring friends
in Boston. Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Washington and other cities out in the
provinces that they had been able TO
go up and down stairs without walk
ing.
When travellers came from New York
and told about this vertical screw rail.
way to our grandfathers, those worthy
gentlemen raised their eyes and hands
In establishment and probably exclaim-
ed, "Will wonders never ceaseT
An English trade paper. the London
Builder, in September. 1859. had an
editorial Oh the subject of the vertical
screw railway in the United States.
saying: 1T is carriage that will
move from the top to the bottom Of
the building and from the bottom TO
the top. Ii will be forced upward by
the application of steam power, and
the descent will be regulated by the
resistance of hydraulic power"
1t was not until the early seventies
that the vertical railway was intro
duced in England, the first lift" being
installed In Albert hall, and TO ride In
this passengers were required to pay
a fee of one penny. Conservative peo-
pie in America and England looked on
this invention with grave suspicion
and "felt it in their bones that it was |
only question of time when 1t would
fall down and kill everybody in it
Today the lift is nothing like so
common I'm Europe as the elevator,
which is the same thing, Is in the |
United States. One reason for this is |
that the United States is the birthplace
and the home of the skyscraper. while
high buildings. as building heights are
in America. are infrequent
In Europe. Washington Star.