We all use, or have used an elevator in our daily lives at some point. They make our lives easier by eliminating the use of stairs and granting ease of access to those who may use a wheelchair, crutches, or the like.
Elevators of old didn’t have automatic doors, they would have to be manually closed before riding. Due to human error, many individuals lost their lives by falling down elevator shafts.
A man by the name of Alexander Miles, an African American inventor, almost lost his daughter to such an incident. That incident inspired Miles to develop a solution to the elevator door problem, and in 1887 he took out a patent for a mechanism that automatically opens and closes the elevator doors.
So the next time you hop on an elevator and don’t fall down the shaft, thank Alexander Miles.
Reporting for WGRT – Choze Powell
Source: history.com
