Article: GOING UP? Mechanic Elisha Graves Otis perfected a labor-saving device 150 years ago to make hoisting safer. He probably never imagined it would alter the architectural landscape of the world.(VARIETY)

Byline: Heron Marquez Estrada; Staff Writer

Otis, my man.

That famous line from the movie "Animal House" can only begin to express the debt of gratitude the world owes to Elisha Graves Otis who, 150 years ago, introduced an invention that lifted humanity to new heights and changed the face of cities all over the world.

The New York master mechanic called his device "Life and Labor Saving Hoisting Machinery" but people have come to call it simply the elevator.

"I think it is certainly one of the great inventions," said Rini Paiva of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, which inducted Otis in 1988. "It was not just a ...

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