What form of motorized transportation carries the most passengers worldwide? If you thought of mediocre 1987 comedy movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” the answer is none of these. In fact, the most popular form carries around 2.7 billion people every day, or about the total world population every three days! The automobile is a distant second at about 70 million trips per day. 

The winner, of course, is the humble elevator. In fact, if you live or work in a building with more than three stories, you probably ride in one several times a day without giving it a second thought. This casual indifference is well-earned in this case. Elevators, in addition to being the most used, may be the safest of all transportation systems. In the U.S., an average of 27 elevator-related fatalities occur per year, with over half that number occurring among construction and maintenance workers. As a mere passenger, that works out to about 0.004 deaths per 100,000 people per year, compared to 12.9 per 100,000 in automobiles. 

While there are many elevator manufacturers worldwide, you have probably noticed the name “Otis” many times, and may have even assumed that is the name of the elevator’s inventor. Actually, elevators have existed for millennia, including one built by Archimedes. For most of that time, however, elevators were used to carry goods and livestock, with human passengers being considered the daredevils of their time. Fear of a broken cable or failed hoist system leading to a sudden drop, potentially tens or even hundreds of meters, kept most people off. 

The big shift in public perception began in 1854, when Elisha Graves Otis, already an elevator manufacturer, demonstrated his safety brake, a device that automatically engaged when tension was lost on the cable, and locked the car in place. He went so far as to demonstrate the system himself at the New York City World’s Fair, reportedly riding his elevator to a “considerable height” (probably around 10 meters) and then intentionally cutting the hoist rope, leaving him safely suspended above the crowd. 

As a result, public confidence in elevators increased greatly, and became a standard feature of high-rise buildings, including in 1883 the Montauk building in Chicago, widely regarded as the world’s first skyscraper, which featured two passenger elevators. The Montauk building rose to an astonishing 10 stories, but unfortunately was demolished in 1902. 

The original mechanical safety brake has evolved into numerous mechanical, hydraulic and electrical redundant systems, making it all but impossible for an elevator to free-fall down its shaft. So go ahead and continue riding elevators, with full confidence that, in the worst case, a failure of any part of the system might mean spending some time in a stopped car, but you certainly won’t fall to your demise!

Ed Becker is a Fellow and Past President of STLE. He is currently president of Friction & Wear Solutions, LLC and can be reached through his website at www.frictionandwearsolutions.com.