Elevator

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345 Elevator 1900s QUSA Elevator 1900s Elevator 1900s QUSA 5.3USA BESES YORK YORK SEP 16 1988 SEP 16 1988 1019 10199 Banl Nonprofit Carrier Route Sort Nonprofit Carrier Route Sort NY Nonprofit Carrier Route Sort

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ELEVATOR First Day of Issue: September 16, 1988 First Issue Location: New York, New York Every night at the New York Crystal Palace Exposition of 1853, Elisha Otis demonstrated his latest invention — an elevator equipped with a safety device to keep it from falling if the rope broke. Otis recognized that a demon- stration of elevator safety was not the sort of thing that would pack an exhibition hall, unaided. Elevators in various forms had been around since at least the first century B.C. So, to ensure his demonstrations drew an audience and news of his invention spread, Otis enli- vened his presentations with a dash of drama. Each night, after mounting the platform of his elevator and being hauled aloft, the inventor would grandly order that the suspending rope be cut. As the audience gasped, death- defying Otis and his platform would remain airborne, saved by a spring-driven ratchet device, while the rope plummeted to the floor. The day of the safe passenger elevator had arrived, and the skyscraper and modern city would soon follow, all because of the safety device invented by Elisha Otis. No. 88-59 ©1988 The Maximum Card Collection A Division of Unicover Corporation . Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 Original painting by Basil Smith