Talk:Elisha Otis

(Comment; perhaps test)
he was a ok man with no life and was married to to women —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.73.228.172 (talk) 20:44, 8 May 2007

(Observation. Requires confirmation.)
Otis left Vermont aged 19 in 1830 & lived in Troy NY for five years. It is conceivable that he attended Renssealer Polytechnic Institute, the first engineering school in America, founded in 1823 in Troy NY.

-JGCFelicitybliss 18:52, 16 July 2007 (UTC) Locke (talk) 19:00, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Unless there is proof to this claim, coming from a viable reference, then there is no basis for adding this information to this article. If you can locate a website to reference book that provides evidence for this "conceivable" notion, it should be added to the article; if not, then there is no basis for its inclusion.
 * The contributor of that so-called "claim" summarized the talk edit with
 * Observation. Requires confirmation.
 * which is also the heading that i've retrofitted on this talk page. Locke probably missed the summary, and presumably wouldn't otherwise have intended the tone that i perceive. --Jerzy•t 19:20, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It is fair to call the Troy-in-the-early-1830s assertion a "claim", and if it was (or if it had been, as the case may be) added to the article it would be appropriate either to provide verification or to Fact tag it (but not to immediately remove it, as as the wording leaves open). Any idea that that info should not be added is counter to WP methods, which thrive on some editors adding unverified info and others providing the verification and/or cleaning up factual errors.  It is not fair to call RPI study by Otis a "claim". However, the failure to mention, on this talk page, that the possiblity that the "Observation" concerns "Requires confirmation" (or rather, would so require before inclusion in the article) created potential for confusion. That made valuable the statement that mention of RPI (as opposed to Troy and the year) has so far "no basis for ... inclusion" in the article. That statement would in turn have been more valuable had it made clear the crucial distinction between the merely unverified time-and-place assertion and the nascent and admittedly speculative original research re RPI. --Jerzy•t 19:20, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

(Expansion)
I found that this page was incredibly short and very dry; it was only about 1 sentence long So, i went ahead and filled up an entire paragraph about him Sorry to those who i might've switched around or deleted your sentences —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.233.170.49 (talk) 21:21, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Bonus
Mention of the The $500 is worthless trivia as it stands, and misleading for many: It sounds like a pittance, but it was probably several months' wages. It needs to be supplemented by a statement of the equivalent in current dollars or some other significance-conveying measure. --Jerzy•t 15:51 & 19:20, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

spelling error
The first sentence has used the wrong form a word. The safety device Otis invented were brakes in case the hoist rope breaks. This sort of spelling error is not caught by spellcheckers. It takes a proofreader to spot such errors. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.26.215.163 (talk • contribs) 12:56, 12 June 2011‎

Earlier safety lifts/elevators
As a result of research on previous occupants of the house where I live, I have reason to believe that the idea that Elisha Otis is the inventor of the first safety lift or elevator should be corrected. John A. Forster, who I believe was the first occupant of Oaks House {from 1836-1841}, Evenwood, and viewer or manager to the collieries owned by the Durham County Coal Company in the area, had installed a working safety lift in the Evenwood mine by 1840. He exhibited his design for this lift at Newcastle in 1840  and gave a detailed description of its ingenious workings in the journal The Mechanics Magazine, January (1841)  pp. 105-6. This can be consulted via Google advanced book search, for which the link is: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JxEFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA105&dq=%22evenwood%22+%22colliery%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BjjwUPaVI4Wr0AXumoDQAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22evenwood%22%20%22colliery%22&f=false

(‘Jno.’ Is an abbreviation for ‘John’, and ‘Forster’ is often spelt ‘Foster’, the different spellings sometimes occurring even in the same document referring to him).

As one can see from even the snippet available on Google advanced book search from another contemporary journal, The Polytechnic Journal, Vol 4, (1841), Foster (or Forster) is described as the ‘inventor’ of the safety cage, or lift: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dLsRAAAAYAAJ&q=%22evenwood%22+Foster&dq=%22evenwood%22+Foster&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mTfwUJtjytDRBb-BgbAK&redir_esc=y

In his own account one can note that others were working on similar projects, such as one Admiral  Bullen of Bath. But there is no question that Forster’s safety lift was in existence and operating by 1841. It is perhaps not surprising that mining engineers were attempting to find a solution to accidents occurring due to the breaking of lift-hoisting ropes or chains, given the increasing depth of mines being sunk in the early 19th century.

Further, it appears that at least the second journal referenced above was available in the US. This is in no way to suggest any ‘foul play’ on the part of Elisha Otis, since there is no question of copyright, and there may have been no influence at all. However, it is important to register that such safety lifts were already operating in the collieries in the UK at least ten years before Otis’ invention. Rightly the invention of the safety lift is credited with playing a decisive part in the development of the modern skyscraper and, therefore, of the modern urban landscape.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Andrew Beards

2 Oaks House, Evenwood, County Durham, UK — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blandford-Beards (talk • contribs) 16:20, 11 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I noticed that both documents show that the inventor was Mr John A. Foster. Why do you think his name may have been Forster? Do you have a source that makes you believe his name was Forster? ——Nikolas Ojala (talk) 11:44, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Contains confusing juxtaposition
This should be expressed more clearly, or corrected, or clarified:

"... nor did he try to sell it. After having made several sales..." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.47.13.163 (talk) 18:59, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Strange and wrong info in the wikipedia database
I noticed that the wikipedia dump for this article contains a Persondata entry with the name "Bob Wensley, born August 3, 2012 in Halifax, Vermont and presumely dying on April 8, 2045. I don't know how relevant this is, but it's pretty weird.

Regards,

Sebastian Mecklenburg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.33.10.147 (talk) 13:52, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Otis Tufts Mention
I think there should be at least one mention of Otis Tufts since they both came up with their elevator patents around the same time, and to clarify their similar namesakes. 199.230.114.162 (talk) 15:32, 27 February 2024 (UTC)