The Big Impact of Escalators

We may take this thing for granted whenever we go to malls or shopping centres. But little do we know that the literally ground-breaking invention of the escalator would forever change our sense of space, and expand our concept of space and time.

Before the escalator was invented, commerce and transportation were largely one-dimensional. Stairs and elevators were for the committed and purposeful, their limitations constraining vertical expansion, above and below ground. Stairs require patience and effort. Elevators have a unique, precise, and tightly constrained mission. The invention of the escalator changed everything: suddenly, a constant flow of people could ascend into the air, or descend to the depths. The escalator modified architecture itself, creating fluid transitions into spaces above and below. Now, in commerce and transportation, neither the sky nor the ground would be the limit.

Know more about the history of the escalator and how it impacted our lives on the Smithsonian.

(Image Credit: Activedia/ Pixabay)


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