In 1892, Jesse Reno tilted a moving walkway to 25 degrees; four years later, about 75,000 people rode his strange new “inclined elevator” at Coney Island

Long before escalators became a routine sight in shopping centres, railway stations and airports, one of their earliest versions appeared as an unusual amusement ride. In 1892, American engineer Jesse Wilford Reno patented an inclined conveyor designed to move people between different levels. Four years later, he turned the concept into a public attraction at Coney Island, where about 75,000 people reportedly tried the strange machine during a two-week exhibition.

According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Jesse Reno's invention was not the staircase-like escalator familiar today but was closer to a moving ramp, with passengers standing or sitting on a continuously moving surface as it carried them upwards. Its basic principle of moving people continuously offered an early model for moving crowds in public spaces.

From a subway idea to an inclined elevator


Reno, who earned a degree in mining and metallurgical engineering from Lehigh University, invented his moving conveyor through his contemplations related to the urban transportation system. His US Patent No. 470,918, filed in 1892, was for an "endless conveyor or elevator" designed to move large numbers of people up and down. This patent was issued on 15 March of the same year. It consisted of a set of metal boards having a toothed surface that was fixed on a moving conveyor belt. The grooves helped them move with the help of toothed rollers at the landing point.

The device was designed to operate at a 25-degree gradient. This was a gradient that would transport people upward effectively while also being within the reach of people using the conveyor. Reno's original patent envisioned that this invention was supposed to be an alternative to the use of stairs and vertical lifts in the movement of people, especially in large numbers. The motivation was linked to Reno's idea for underground transport in New York. It would have been used instead of the vertical lift to move people from street level to subway level.

Coney Island turns engineering into entertainment

The National Inventors Hall of Fame says Reno’s device found an unexpected proving ground at Coney Island, where it was installed as an amusement attraction at the Old Iron Pier in 1896. Unlike an ordinary elevating device, which moves passengers vertically in a structure, the device moved them upwards by around seven feet from the ground level. Passengers who used the device did not have the experience of using an ordinary escalator because they moved up on a belt fitted with iron slats. According to Guinness World Records, the device moved at about 75 feet per minute, or roughly 23 metres per minute.

Though rather strange-looking, it drew strong public interest. In the two weeks that it spent at Coney Island, it is thought that as many as 75,000 passengers rode it. This turned the engineering experiment into a public demonstration of one possible use for such machines. It also suggested that Reno's idea of using a moving belt to carry people upwards could attract public interest.

The machine that influenced later escalators

Reno wasn’t the only one interested in developing moving stairs. Some other people received patents for similar devices; George A. Wheeler invented a device which bore some resemblance to the stepping device, which was finally installed in buildings. Wheeler's patents were purchased later by Charles Seeberger, who collaborated with the Otis Elevator Company on the development of the moving staircase. This is significant because the Reno device served as a precedent to the escalator, but it was not a replica of it. The Reno device showed the advantage of moving people, whereas later developments improved the steps and mechanisms of the escalators.

Reno founded Reno Electric Stairways and Conveyors in 1902. His patents were later purchased by the Otis Elevator Company, which used some of his inventions in its innovations. Although his 25-degree conveyor seemed more like a fairground attraction than infrastructure, the 75,000 people who rode it at Coney Island showed its appeal.