The Reader’s Notebook

The Reader’s Notebook: Safety Elevator

By Greg Jenkins

Published March 23, 2022 at 9:40 AM EDT

Elisha Otis's elevator patent drawing, 1861.

Riding in an elevator used to be dangerous business — until Elisha Otis, of Otis Elevator Company fame, invented a device that could prevent a passenger elevator from falling if its rope broke. It debuted precisely 160 years ago at the E.V. Haughwout and Company store in Manhattan on March 23, 1857. (time.com)

The Reader’s Notebook

Greg Jenkins

Greg Jenkins has been the Operations Director at MSPR since 1999. Greg is a 1996 graduate of Morehead State University with a BME in Music Education and received a Masters of Science in Industrial Technology in 2008. Greg oversees training, scheduling, and evaluation of the student board operator staff, preparation of the daily traffic logs and serves as weekday classical music host. He is also the webmaster of the MSPR website and maintains MSPR's webstreaming and podcasting.

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