Showerthought: I just read that the first safety elevator brake was invented after Elisha Otis saw a factory hoist fail in Yonkers in 1852.

Found that in an old trade magazine at the dentist's office, and it's wild to think the whole modern industry basically started because one guy decided a rope shouldn't just snap.

3 comments

3 Comments

lily2304mo agoMost Upvoted

Totally. Read something similar about seatbelts. Just a doctor seeing crash victims and thinking "what if we just tied people in". So simple.

noah9144mo ago

Remember reading about the guy who invented the traffic light. He was a policeman in Detroit who got tired of watching carriages and cars crash at busy corners. His first design in 1920 used red and green lights and a buzzer. It's funny how a lot of safety stuff comes from just one person seeing a dumb problem and fixing it.

the_kevin2mo ago

Don't you think most safety inventions work that way? It's like @noah914 said, one person seeing a dumb problem and fixing it, and before long you've got traffic lights and elevator brakes and seatbelts, all because somebody got tired of watching people get hurt.