Science Friday #2: Elevators, Skyscrapers and the Environment

149 years ago to this day, US patent #31128 was issued to Elisha Otis for “improvement in hoisting apparatus”, i.e. the steam-powered safety elevator. The elevator is to go on to revolutionize city planning: after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the city’s downtown was rebuilt in a more systematic way that better made use [...]

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