Otis Elevator Car Coming Call Button, Antique Bronze Building Hardware Panel, Weight is close to 1 pound 2oz. Cool car coming Otis call button but missing the car coming cover and 2 call buttons and works.
This looks and feels bronze but could be brass and nonmagnetic. Numbered what looks like 1692SW 1 with the Otis emblem on front. Found some fun reading about this famous company from the great Wikipedia at bottom!
Button measures 10 3/4″ tall, 2 3/8″ wide. This looks nice with minimal greening and tarnishing, so possible plate was gold leafed down the road, but they did a clean job, Flat finish. Has light scratches, scuffs, tarnishing verdigris and still looks great! Cool historic find!
The booming elevator market
In 1852 Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator, which automatically comes to a halt if the hoisting rope breaks. After a demonstration at the 1853 New York World’s Fair, the elevator industry established credibility.
Otis elevator in Glasgow, Scotland, imported from the U.S. in 1856 for Gardner’s Warehouse, the oldest cast-iron fronted building in the British Isles.
The Otis Elevator Company was founded in Yonkers, New York, in 1853 by Elisha Otis. When Elisha died in 1861, his sons Charles and Norton formed a partnership and continued the business. During the American Civil War, their elevators were in high demand due to the shipment of war materials. Businesses throughout the United States purchased them. In 1864, with the partnership of J.M. Alvord, the company became known as Otis Brothers & Co. In 1867, Otis opened a factory in Yonkers, New York, the city where the company was founded.
In 1925, the world’s first fully automatic elevator, Collective Control, was introduced. In 1931, the company installed the world’s first double-deck elevator in New York City.
Otis opened a factory in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1965.
Fayette S. Dunn became president of the company in 1964, succeeding the late Percy Douglas.
