History of the Elevator

We learn from the documents we have that have survived to the present day that the elevator, which is used as a vertical or transportation vehicle and offered to the service of humanity, first spread from Europe to the whole world.

From ancient times until the Middle Ages, that is, until the beginning of the 13th century, human or animal power was used in lifting devices. The knowledge that there were cabinets going up and down between floors in the palaces of the ancient Roman Empire has survived to this day through historical documents. In the work written by the Roman Architect Vitarus in 26 AD, it was built in Rome BC. He mentioned some vehicles used to carry loads 236 years ago. Scientists at the time decided that these cabinets were primitive elevators.

It is known that in the Middle Ages, there were elevators operating from outside on the walls of monasteries similar to this one. It is thought that such elevators were built for defense and protection purposes, to prevent enemies from entering the interior by making night raids.

At the beginning of the 17th century, a French architect named Velayer improved this primitive tool and made it work more balancedly with counterbalance. This device was moved by turning it by hand, and he called it the flying chair. 15 years later, American architect Henry Waterman built a larger cabinet and used it in a two-storey building. By operating this device with compressed air, he showed that there was no need for human power.

In 1867, a French engineer named Edoux built a new lifting machine on the occasion of the international Paris exhibition and named it ELEVATOR (Ascenseur). This machine was able to take visiting guests up and down to the highest point. In 1878, again at the Paris exhibition, Edoux managed to raise it to a height of 62.5 meters with an elevator. In 1880, this time, German physicist Erner Van Siemens came up with a new invention. He made use of electricity in the Mannheim exhibition. In an exhibition opened in Paris in 1889, the famous French Engineer Eiffel built an elevator whose name he immortalized, and people could effortlessly climb up to this tower and watch Paris.

Not so long ago, exactly 3 years later, the first elevator in our country was built by the French Architect Alxander Valley in 1892 to accommodate the passengers of the Orient Express, in the hotel (Pera Palas) overlooking the fascinating beauty of the Golden Horn, a place where history is hidden in Istanbul.

While it is the first building to use electricity in Beyoğlu, Turkey’s oldest electric elevator is also located in the Pera Palas hotel. (1892) The century-old elevator, which forms one of the most beautiful corners of the hotel, has been integrated with Pera Palas and has preserved its beauty and magnificence until today, as if it were a match for the new ones. The elevator, which can carry a weight of 5 people (400) kg, is maintained once a week and inspected once a year. The fact that no major accident has ever occurred in the elevator operated by a Liftboy has become a source of pride for the century-old elevator.

Exactly 15 years later, in İZMİR, the pearl of our country and the Aegean region, an elevator was established in the Karataş district by our Jewish citizen Nesim Levi in ​​1907. This elevator, which was especially intended for the use of the elderly and disabled, was previously powered by water vapor. Today it operates on electricity.