Who invented the safety elevator?

Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator, a lift designed to stop the car if its hoisting rope broke. His spring-loaded safety mechanism gripped guide rails and addressed the main danger that made early passenger elevators frightening.

Otis developed the device in 1852 while working at a bedstead factory in Yonkers, New York, where a hoist was needed to move heavy equipment. He dramatically demonstrated the invention at New York’s Crystal Palace in 1854 by standing on a raised platform while its lifting rope was cut.

The demonstration helped convince the public that elevators could be safe enough for regular passenger use. On March 23, 1857, Otis installed the first passenger safety elevator at the E. V. Haughwout building in New York City.

Otis did not invent the elevator itself, which had ancient and industrial predecessors. His crucial contribution was the automatic safety brake. Henry Waterman and Otis Tufts developed other elevator technologies, but neither is the canonical answer to this question.