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Some Historical Facts About Escalators
Escalators. Moving staircases. We kind of take them for granted as a convenience of modern life. We get annoyed when they stop working. They don’t make great staircases.
But a lot of us didn’t know how they came about and when.
When Was the First Escalator Patented?
1859! A guy named Nathan Ames in Michigan patented the revolving stairs…but he was never able to make his design work. He was just that bit ahead.
The First Escalator Was an Amusement Park Ride
Ames saw his escalator primarily as a way to help mobility impaired or weak people get from story to story. But the first working escalator was set up as an amusement park ride at Coney Island! It was set up in 1895. A proof of concept, it transported seated riders and was only there for a couple of weeks.
Department Stores and Subways
Unsurprisingly, early practical escalators showed up in two locations they are commonly found today…large stores and public transit systems. The first escalator in England, for example, was installed at Harrods in 1898.