Coney Island
The escalator was patented by Jesse Wilford Reno on this day in 1892 — 131 years ago. Reno’s invention was first called an "inclined elevator." The first working device was installed a year earlier at the Old Iron Pier on Coney Island in New York City.
In 1896, Reno’s Inclined Elevator Company erected a demonstration model at the Manhattan entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge at Park Row. It was a hit when it opened for the afternoon rush hour on Dec. 29, 1896.
The magazine, The Electrical Age, wrote: “What may prove in the course of time to be one of the most popular devices used in office buildings or apartment houses is now being tried at the New York end of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
When Reno offered to sell the bridge trustees an escalator for $5,820, The Eagle reported, “This matter was laid on the table for future action.” The sale never occurred.
Born in 1861 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Reno was the son of American Civil War notable Jesse L. Reno. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1883 with an engineering degree in mining, later a metallurgical degree.
Reno’s escalator was a moving staircase — a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.
Escalators are now used around the world to move pedestrian traffic in places where elevators would be impractical. They have the capacity to move large numbers of people, and they can be placed in the same physical space as one might install a staircase.
Brooklyn Bridge, 1896