An Elevator Quiz Works on So Many Levels (Pt 1)

Answer: Archimedes

According to the written records of Vitruvius, Archimedes created the first manually-operated mechanical elevator using a system of pulleys and winches that were powered by humans or animals. A wheel at the base was turned by humans or animals, via hoisting ropes tied to the platform, the cargo was lifted upward. It allowed for the vertical transport of cargo, probably mostly grain, but also heavy objects and people.

Answer: Pyramid of Djoser

Analysis by the French research scientists assert that in constructing the 204-foot tall Pyramid of Djoser on the Saqqara plateau, the Egyptians built the six-tiered, four-sided structure, with the help of water from a nearby river to design their hydraulic system. The set-up is said to have included a dam, a water treatment plant and a freight elevator.

The system, scientists propose, involved the power of the water flow from that branch of the Nile to fill the shafts they built and thus lift and lower platforms carrying stones. Without further evidence though, we fall back on the first "recorded" use of an elevator in ancient Egypt however, being a man-powered system that helped build the Pyramid of Giza, using ropes and buckets to lift what they needed.

Answer: The Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum was completed in 80 A.D., and it featured a system of elevators and hoists that transported 24 elevator cages carrying gladiators and animals from underground chambers, tunnels and animal pens to the arena floor. A team of slaves operated the lifts, using a pulleys and winches, hand cranks to take in the hoists or let them out.

Answer: Windlass

Windlass systems involve a series of ropes and pulleys working together to lift or lower loads vertically. A windlass has of a horizontal cylinder, which is rotated by turning a crank, accomplished by people or animals. They were commonly used in castles and monasteries. Some agricultural establishments used them to lift crops from the ground to storage areas on upper levels.
Those other answer choices are all Medieval torture devices.

Answer: Screw-driven mechanism

Screw-driven lifting devices during the Renaissance utilized a long screw mechanism for raising and lowering people or goods. The principle involved converting rotational force of the screw into linear motion to lift the elevator contents. The system made for smoother, more controlled vertical movements.

A prominent inventor of the era, Fausto Veranzio, was noted for his innovative designs for lifting devices, as well as bridges, mills, and wind turbines.

Answer: Palace of Versailles

Facilitated by the mechanic Blaise-Henri Arnoult, in 1743, it was installed in the Palace of Versailles, located on the north side of Louis the XV's small courtyard. This "Flying Chair" (aka "chaise volantes") was a small cabin with a rope, raised or lowered by the passenger via a system of pulleys and counterweights.

It was primarily used to give private access for the king's mistress, the Duchess of Châteauroux, for trysts in his third-floor apartment. The King's follow-up mistress Madame de Pompadour would then use it from 1745 to 1750. In 1754 it was dismantled and transported to the Palace of Fontainebleau, where it was used to access Madame de Pompadour's theatre box in the Belle Cheminée wing. It should be noted that there are reports that the "Flying Chair" had an earlier incarnation, invented by Jean-Jacques Renouard, Count of Villayer (1605-1691) who had one installed at Chantilly.

The Château de la Couronne is in New York City, The Château de Bellerive is in Montreal, and La Petite France is an area in Germany.

Answer: Elisha Graves Otis

In 1852, American inventor Elisha Graves Otis devised the first safety device that prevented the elevator compartment from falling in the event that the main cable broke. It was demonstrated in New York's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1854.

Answer: New York City

Earlier forms of lifting systems existed, but the 1853 elevator shaft at New York's Cooper Union Foundation was a leap forward in modern elevators being integrated into the building's interior structure for passenger use. Peter Cooper included the design in anticipation of safer elevators in the near future. Earlier versions of elevators were primarily used for conveying goods and materials instead of people, and they were mostly outside the buildings, but the Cooper Union elevator was the first one dedicated to passengers.

Answer: False

The first passenger elevator was installed in 1857, when Elisha Otis's safety device was part of that installment on March 23, 1857, at the E.V. Haughwout & Company store in Manhattan. However, it wasn't electric. It was a hydraulic lift, powered by a steam engine located in the basement at a cost of $300. People came from afar to witness it and take a ride in it.

It wasn't until the 1870s that elevators began showing up in office buildings. And it wasn't until 1880, that German inventor Werner von Seimer built the first electric elevator.

Answer: Potbelly Sandwich Shop elevator in Washington D.C.

Lore has it that a very old open cage elevator at Potbelly Sandwich Shop in Washington, D.C., was an Otis elevator installed in 1853, which would make it one of the oldest in the world. But the Otis Elevator Company archivists debunked the myth saying it's actually a Bates elevator, from the 1870s or 1880s, It has since stopped being operational.

The two elevators in the Biltmore Estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, were installed in 1895 by the Otis Elevator Company. They are still operational, transporting visitors and the disabled between the first to the second floor. The still-operating elevator City Hall, New Bedford, Massachusetts was installed in 1906 and is still operating into the 21st century, becoming something of a tourist attraction. The antique designed elevator in the Majestic Building was installed in 1907, but stopped operating in 1993.