Elevating Influence

The skyline of Manhattan--or of any other metropolis--would be completely different were it not for the Otis Elevator Co. Founder Elisha Graves Otis made the first safe and practical elevator in the middle of the 19th century. When steel beams and hanging walls made skyscrapers structurally possible, it was the availability of the elevator that made such heights practical. In the present worldwide boom in high-rise buildings, 110-year-old Otis is thriving as never before. Operating in all 50 states and in 43 countries, the company last year captured a dominant 40% of the world's elevator business, and reported record sales of $351 million.

From Lions to Titans. Elevators of a sort were around long before Elisha Otis. Crude elevators run by manpower lifted stones for Cheops' pyramid in 2900 B.C., later carried gladiators and lions to the arena level of Rome's Colosseum. There were even steam-powered elevators operating several years before Otis developed his, but Otis worked out a system of springs and ratchets that prevented elevators from falling when hoisting ropes broke. He thus set off a revolution in construction.

Department stores and tenements, which had rarely risen beyond five stories, began to top off at ten stories; hotels, which had assigned their help to the top floors because of the long walk up, suddenly found the penthouse floors the most desirable for tenants.

Growing from an early merger with eight competitors, Otis never lost its early lead. With more than 250,000 of its elevators in operation around the world, Otis does double the business of its only real competitor, Westinghouse, makes about 25% of its money by maintaining the elevators it installs. A battery of 58 Otises hum up and down the Empire State Building; Otis elevators lift planes aboard the carriers Saratoga and Independence and promenaders aboard such liners as the France, the Leonardo da Vinci and Cunard's Queens, raise Atlas and Titan missiles into firing positions at missile sites.

A Little Scare. Otis also manufactures escalators (it is pushing a new one with glass balustrades), moving walkways, fork trucks and bowling-alley pin setters. But elevators account for 88% of the company's business--and Otis never stops trying to improve on them. All of the elevators Otis makes today run without operators (at a saving of $8,000 per car a year). They are so electronically sophisticated that they will not close their doors on a passenger (though they may scare him a little by trying to), automatically program themselves for varying morning and evening traffic, and usually answer the call of a button within 25 seconds. President Percy L. Douglas, 60, is concentrating on increasing the company's worldwide business, and Otis now has 19,000 employees abroad.

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