Who Invented the Escalator?

SN 1896, tourists visiting Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., were treated to an exciting new amusement ride: a mechanical, moving staircase that used a conveyor belt to transport riders upwards at a 25 degree angle. The ride, which would become known as an escalator, was a novelty at the time, and never intended to be used as a form of public transport.

Inventor Jesse Reno had patented his design for an “endless conveyor” or “inclined elevator” four years earlier. In 1859, Massachusetts inventor Nathan Ames had been granted a patent for a revolving staircase machine that could be powered by steam, but no device was ever built based on the design. A man named Leamon Souder had also obtained several patents for moving staircase machines, but nothing was ever built from his designs either. Around the same time Reno had obtained his patents, an inventor named George Wheeler patented a design for a moving staircase that was also never built. Finally, a man named Charles Seeberger began drawings on yet another design for a moving staircase. Seeberger purchased Wheeler’s patents, and combined with his designs, joined with the Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers, N.Y., to build a prototype. Seeberger, and the Otis Elevator Company, introduced the world to the first commercial elevator in 1899. Seeberger coined the term “escalator” by combining the word “elevator” – which had already been invented at the time, with “scala,” the Latin word for steps. He also received a trademark for the word, which meant that other inventors could not call their moving staircases “escalators.”

In 1900, at the Paris Exposition Universelle, the Seeburger-Otis escalator

A turn of the century ride at Coney Island becomes a popular

form of public transportu

won first place. Also presented at the exhibition were Jesse Reno’s inclined elevator and several other devices created by other inventors. Among them were moving staircase machines by two French manufacturers, Halle, and Piat. The Piat “stepless” escalator was installed in Harrod’s department store in England in November of 1895. The Piat escalator was the first public escalator in England.

These different versions of the escalator varied in design and mechanics as the manufacturers worked to improve the design. Reno’s escalators, for example, did not provide actual steps. Passengers stood on metal or wood treads. Seeberger was the first to introduce steps. As more escalators were installed in public places, people began to see the benefits of the devices. They fit in the same space as a stairwell or staircase, and should they break down, they functioned as a stationary staircase, without causing much disturbance or disruption to public transport. Unlike an elevator, there was almost no waiting time to use an escalator. Finally, the devices were relatively safe for passengers compared to other mechanical people-moving devices. In 1906, a new design by Jesse Reno, a spiral escalator, was installed in the Holloway Tube Station in London— the first escalator to be installed in an underground train or subway system.

The Otis Elevator Company eventually purchased both Jesse Reno and Charles Seeberger’s patents, and became the dominant escalator manufacturer in the country, improving upon the design until it had developed the escalator as we know it today. However, the company eventually lost the trademark on the word “escalator” when the U.S. Patent Office ruled that the word had become a common term for describing moving stairways.