page_title: Elisha Otis
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Elisha Otis / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Démonstartion du frein de chute par Elisha OTIS au Crystal Palace en 1854.English: Elisha Otis demo of his free-fall prevention mechanism, Crystal Palace, 1854.
context_page_description: Elisha Graves Otis was an American industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.
context_section_description: Otis was born in Halifax, Vermont, to Stephen Otis and Phoebe Glynn. He moved away from home at the age of 19, eventually settling in Troy, New York, where he lived for five years employed as a wagon driver. In 1834, he married Susan A. Houghton. They would have two children, Charles and Norton. Later that year, Otis suffered a terrible case of pneumonia which nearly killed him, but he earned enough money to move his wife and three-year-old son to the Vermont Hills on the Green River. He designed and built his own gristmill, but did not earn enough money from it, so he converted it into a sawmill, yet still did not attract customers. Now having a second son, he started building wagons and carriages, at which he was fairly skilled. His wife later died, leaving Otis with two sons, one age 8 and the other still in diapers.
caption: Otis free-fall safety demonstration in 1853
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