There were elevators before Otis. Even the ancient Egyptians had figured out ways of getting things from one level to another. But by the mid-1850s elevators were still little more than boxes attached to ropes. If the rope broke, gravity took over and caused the box to plummet to the ground.
Otis figured out how to attach the rope to the box in such a way that if it broke, a device would automatically detect the problem. [N 001 / This device] would then reach out and grab the vertical rails that ran along either side of the elevator box. In doing so, the device acted like a brake, preventing the box from falling. Otis demonstrated his invention by stepping into the box, rising with it off the ground, and then cutting the rope - remaining suspended in the air, to the "oohs" and "aahs" of the gathered crowd. With the invention of the first elevator safe for human use, there was nowhere for architecture to go but up.
