Going Up? Elevators and Space Flight Take Off

On March 23^rd, 1857, Elisha Otis installed the first public passenger elevator at 488 Broadway in New York, New York. Otis, who was born in Halifax, Vermont, was a master craftsman and began to work on a “safety elevator”, while cleaning up an old factory which he planned on turning into a bedstead factory. His design for the safety elevator, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke, was a huge success. Otis decided to showcase his invention in 1854 at an exposition in New York. This exposure is what allowed Otis to start up his own company, the Otis Elevator Company, whose legacy was continued on after Elisha’s death by his sons. Otis is responsible for revolutionizing the design of elevators as this early design is similar still to those that are used today.

Also on March 23^rd, but in 1965, NASA launched Gemini 3, which was the first manned flight of the newly designed Gemini spacecrafts. The main objective of this flight was to test the new flight controls of the spacecraft. The flight was manned by a crew of two men, Virgil Grissom and John Young. This flight was the ninth manned American space flight ever. The flight was a success overall and certainly a historic event in American history.