History & CultureHow it works
How a rope that snaps holds the lift in place.
Lifts existed long before Elisha Otis – nobody trusted them. In 1853 Otis invented the safety brake: while the rope pulls, a spring holds pawls back. If the rope breaks, the spring relaxes and the pawls bite into the guide rails. In 1854 he had the rope cut before a crowd in New York; the first passenger lift ran in 1857.
Useful: Safety does not sell through explanation but through a demonstration of the failure case.
Source: en.wikipedia.org