. Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land; with an appendix, bringing the volume down to date . rts of the country. The wormgear was used by this latter firm in 1850, and wire ropesin 1852, as well as the rack on the guide beams. In 1857 the firm of William Adams and Company, Boston,put sixteen freight elevators into the newly built granitewarehouse called the State Street Block. These elevatorswere at first worked by hempen ropes, and the shafting thatconveyed the power extended continuously through all thestores of the block. Other early inventors
. Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land; with an appendix, bringing the volume down to date . rts of the country. The wormgear was used by this latter firm in 1850, and wire ropesin 1852, as well as the rack on the guide beams. In 1857 the firm of William Adams and Company, Boston,put sixteen freight elevators into the newly built granitewarehouse called the State Street Block. These elevatorswere at first worked by hempen ropes, and the shafting thatconveyed the power extended continuously through all thestores of the block. Other early inventors and patentees ofportions of elevator machinery were Mr. E. G. Otis, of Yon- * The original sketch is in the possession of Mr. Charles Whittier, presi-dent of the Whittier Machine Company, of Boston. The author is indebted tothe courtesy of Harper and Brothers for periniseion to use this and the follow-ing cut in the present work. THE VERTICAL RAILWAY. 147 kers, New York, and Mr. Cyrus W. Baldwin, of Brooklyn,New York. The experiments and inventions of the lattergentleman have brought hydraulic elevators to a state ofgreat WATERMAN S ELEVATOR. Accidents were continually happening to the early eleva-tors, owing to the breaking of ropes. It was an accident toan elevator of his own make that led Mr. Albert Betteley, ofthe firm of William Adams and Company, of Boston, to theinvention of the air-cushion safety device, considered by manyas the best of such devices. The accident alluded to hap-pened at the store of Emmons, Danforth and Scudder, in theState Street Block. The elevator platform, loaded with 148 WONDERS AND CURIOSITIES OF THE RAILWAY. seven boxes of sugar, had fallen from a great height intothe cellar beneath the hoistway, and the pulleys and gear-ing at the top had been flung clear over upon the neighboringstores. Mr. Betteley was summoned to the scene. He, ofcourse, expected to find a complete wreck in the cellar; butwhat was his surprise to find the boxes o
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