Elevator

An elevator is a powered platform or enclosed compartment that transports people or goods vertically between floors. Most passenger elevators use a motor-driven cable system or hydraulic piston.

Traction elevator: An elevator lifted by ropes or belts driven over a motor-powered traction sheave. Its counterweighted suspension is the most common system in taller buildings.
Elevator car: The platform or enclosed compartment that carries passengers or cargo in an elevator. It is the moving compartment at the center of the system.
Archimedes: An ancient Greek mathematician and engineer associated with influential studies of levers, pulleys, and other machines. Ancient accounts associate him with an early human-powered lifting device.
Freight elevator: An elevator designed primarily to carry goods, equipment, or vehicles rather than passengers. It adapts elevator transport to heavy or bulky loads.
Skyscraper: A very tall building whose height depends on a structural frame and vertical transport systems. Elevators made upper stories practical to occupy, enabling much taller buildings.
Hydraulic elevator: An elevator raised by a piston powered by pressurized hydraulic fluid. It provides a distinct lifting method, often used in low-rise buildings.
Hoistway: A vertical shaft through which an elevator car travels between floors. It constrains the car's route and separates moving equipment from occupied space.
Elisha Otis: An American inventor whose safety brake helped make passenger elevators trustworthy. His 1850s safety demonstration addressed the danger of a lifting rope breaking.
Passenger elevator: An elevator designed to transport people between floors. It prioritizes passenger capacity, accessibility, and comfortable operation.
Louis Sullivan: An American architect whose late nineteenth-century skyscrapers helped define modern commercial architecture. His tall office buildings developed alongside the elevator's growing practicality.

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