In today’s world, wealthy people living in urban areas are likely to enjoy life in a spacious penthouse apartment that provides them with an impressive view. Until elevators were invented, however, tall buildings were unheard of. Wealthy individuals lived on the lower floors of apartment buildings, leaving poorer residents to climb stairs to the fifth or sixth floor. Today, companies like Five Rivers Construction Inc. in Oregon install and service equipment that brings people of diverse backgrounds up and down many stories without having to use any stairways.
Residences and Businesses
Rich homeowners who enjoyed an estate with several stories preferred to live on the first two floors. Servants lived upstairs. A similar situation developed with buildings in which people worked. Ground-level offices were valued by company owners and executives, leaving lower-paid workers to travel up and down staircases to their desks and machines.
The First Modern Elevators
Relatively modern passenger elevators were first installed in the mid-1800s, when they finally began appearing in luxury hotels and department stores. Later, they would be installed in office buildings. The equipment moved very slowly compared to what people became accustomed years later, so it wasn’t terribly convenient unless the riders had a fair amount of time. In addition, it would be a long time before multiple elevators servicing one building became commonplace.
Automation and Brakes
Lifts had existed for centuries before this, but they mainly ran on a human-operated pulley system. Inventors working on a modern automated system had to overcome one of the biggest obstacles before elevators became pervasive technology: designing braking equipment that would stop the cab safely and gently enough not to hurt anybody inside.
Taller Buildings
After companies like building construction in Oregon were able to install automated equipment in various buildings, architects designed increasingly larger structures. It still took a while before anything close to today’s skyscrapers appeared. The first true skyscraper was the building construction in Oregon completed in 1913. The 1920s saw the advent of the penthouse apartment, which at that time was on the 15th floor of a new structure in Oregon. Five Rivers Construction Inc to learn more about this particular organization.
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