Here's a story on a cool project I was lucky enough to be part of. Both George Gibson, Bob Shepherd and George's son need to take the credit. My part was very small in comparison.
Otis "All Safe Elevator"
http://www.otis.com/site/us/Pages/OtisHistory.aspx?menuID=6
Elisha Graves Otis “All Safe Elevator”
I thought I would share a couple of photos of a project George Gibson (NAESA Senior Advisor) and Bob Shepherd (Executive Director of NAESA) have been working on for a few months now. George and Bob both wanted working replicas of the Elisha Graves Otis, “All Safe” elevator which Mr. Otis used to demonstrate his first safe elevator in NYC back in the 1800s at the Crystal Palace and said the now famous words: “All safe gentlemen, all Safe”
George’s son Scott of Momentum Woodworks fabricated the wooden parts and Tom Sybert of CJ Anderson Co fabricated the safety parts, levers, springs, crosshead plates and linkages using a 3D printer, where would we be if there were 3D printers in the 1800s? After we had all the parts fabricated we sat down and with a little polishing, filing, honing and adjusting, all the parts worked as designed in the assemblies. George and Bob supplied the tools, field expertise and engineering knowledge and the old war stories to get the assembly completed, which would have taken half the time if we hadn’t talked so much. They all worked as designed, when the ropes were cut all cars rested safely on their safeties, so yes, “All safe gentlemen, All safe”.