Head to Head: Elevator vs Escalator Quiz

Answer: Elevator

Writing in the first century BCE, the Roman architect Vitruvius described many machines and devices in his master work "De Architectura". Among these was a primitive sort of elevator, or hoist, which involved several people turning a drum around which a rope had been wound, in order to move the device.

This machine was most likely devised by Archimedes, the Greek mathematician over a century earlier.

Answer: Elevator

Elisha Graves Otis (1811-1861) was the man who made elevators safe to use. His invention -- the safety brake -- stopped the device from plummeting to the bottom of the shaft should the hoisting rope or cable break. It also made the installation of the devices in multi-story buildings for the carrying of freight and passengers commercially viable.

After an 1854 demonstration of the brake, Otis's company began to take orders for elevators, with New York City's first passenger elevator going into operation in a five-story department store in 1857.

The Otis Elevator Company continued to thrive well into the 21st century.

Answer: Elevator

Without being too technical (and confusing myself), an elevator is basically a small room that moves up and down a shaft. A motor provides the power to move the cabin, using cables and pulleys (or sometimes hydraulic pressure and pistons), while the counterweight provides balance and reduces the energy needed to do the lifting. An escalator, on the other hand, is more of a loop operation, involving a chain of linked steps.

Answer: Elevator

Because an elevator is effectively a small room that moves up and down its shaft, its load can consist of almost anything that can walk into or be carried or wheeled into a room of that size. Weight has to be considered, of course, and it is normal for capacity to be posted to avoid overloading the cabin.

By contrast, an escalator is most effective for people, either standing or walking on the moving staircase. A single piece of luggage or some shopping bags could be accommodated, but wheeled items, such as chairs or gurneys, would be less likely to be safe to transport this way.

Answer: Elevator

In the United Kingdom, what is known in North America as an elevator is familiarly called a "lift", a descriptive name that should be readily understood. As trans-Atlantic word differences go, it is one of the easier ones to fathom.

At one time I had believed that the term "elevator" was used in the UK for what is known as an "escalator" elsewhere, but I have not been able to substantiate this belief. It is likely that my cousins were teasing me, or that I had become confused because of early descriptions of moving staircases.

Answer: Escalator

Although several patents had been issued for escalator-like contraptions between the 1850s and 1880s, it was not until 1892 that a practical device designed by Jesse Wilford Reno was constructed. His "Endless Conveyor or Elevator" made its first public appearance in 1896 at the Old Iron Pier in Coney Island, New York.

The Otis Elevator Company soon became involved, purchasing the patent to a similar machine from George A. Wheeler, and putting inventor Charles Seeburger to work on a prototype, which won first prize at a Paris exhibition in 1900.

Answer: Escalator

The prestigious London department store, Harrods, was the first UK location to install a moving staircase to transport people from one floor to another. Installed in 1898, it rose some forty feet (just over twelve metres) and utilised 224 linked steps powered by a leather belt that kept up a continuous motion.

Some patrons were said to have been overcome by the experience and to have required smelling salts to recover!

Answer: Escalator

Charles D. Seeberger (1857-1931) was born in Iowa, and is credited with coining the term "escalator" in or around 1900, using as a root the Latin word "scala", meaning "steps". He also designed the first commercially viable such contraption, selling the rights to his design to the Otis Elevator Company in 1910.

His design involved risers and slats and tracks, with wheels and levers keeping the steps level, and an elastic rubber strip that acted as a safety precaution to seal gaps between steps. In truth, modern escalators differ little from these early examples.

Answer: Escalator

Claims that escalators can move upwards of four thousand people an hour can be believed when one considers the constant flow of traffic that the moving staircases can accommodate. Seldom is there a need to queue to get on an escalator, nor must one wait for it to arrive at one's floor (as one must for an elevator).

Heavy traffic areas like underground (subway) stations, shopping malls and the like can easily see pedestrian traffic in the thousands every hour. Elevators, as well as the waiting period, are restricted by capacity limits and time taken to load and offload, possibly on several floors per trip.

Answer: Escalator

If the power fails the escalator becomes a staircase, and anybody who is travelling up or down upon it can simply walk the rest of the way to their destination floor. Having to walk may be an inconvenience, but it is still possible to get where you are going without much delay.

Although modern elevators (lifts) are less likely to become stuck between floors during a power outage than they were in the past, due to safety back up devices, they will still stop at the next available floor, leaving many passengers far from their intended destination. While some might be able to continue on foot using a stair well, wheelchair users, patients on gurneys or anyone with a lot of parcels/freight would be stuck until power is restored.