Elevator Service Is Paramount to Safety

Elisha Otis is credited with inventing the modern elevator in 1853 to accommodate the need for buildings to become more vertical as land became sparser to accommodate the growing populations in the city limits. Without a more efficient means to transport goods and people vertically, it would be hard to say how many sky rises could have been successfully built to help keep up with the ever-growing need for space.

But the truth is Otis didn't actually invent the elevator as much as he improved upon it with an important safety feature. That was the catch brake, designed to keep an elevator from plummeting the occupants inside to a certain death.

Before Otis came along with his safety device, elevators were run on steam, mostly in plants and mills to transport products more than people upward. However, Otis certainly set the groundwork with his safety device to make elevators safer and more plausible for human use than ever before.

Before they ran on steam, they were around running on animal or manpower as far back as the third century B.C. Whoever originally came up with the concept of transporting people or goods in a box on pulley cables has long been lost to history.

Elevators have of course advanced technologically since Otis's contribution towards their safe operation over one hundred and fifty years ago, which moved them forward with a giant leap from where they were. Like all good things that have gone high tech or digital, that means there is also an increased need for elevator service to keep the ride operating as safely and smoothly as Otis intended.

Towards this end, most buildings have their elevator service done annually to prevent problems like the elevator getting stuck between floors, plummeting to the ground floor as Otis feared, or not operating properly in general due to faulty sensors that control when or if the doors "sense" a person or object in the entryway and remain open.

The majority of defective elevators don't plummet in a freefall to the ground floor when they need to be repaired, thanks to Otis's contribution. Despite this, it can still be a dangerous ride if the door sensors can't properly read when they need to remain open. This is why it's important to never play chicken with an elevator thinking you can beat the closing door. You won't know if the sensor is out of whack until the door is whacking you. So, adhere to some common safety sense around these devices.

Ultimately, it is up to the building to have elevator service jobs done. If they fail to do so and an injury does occur, it becomes a matter of legal fault in litigation.

With this in mind, most buildings have their systems checked annually to ensure the ride is as safe as Otis originally intended when he made his contribution for safety.