On August 2, 1892, George A. Wheeler received U.S. Patent No. 479,864, titled “Elevator,” but which was really the first patent issued on what we now call an escalator.

Jesse Reno received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 470918) on an endless conveyor or elevator about a year earlier on an endless conveyor or elevator, but it was more of a conveyor belt, as the title implies, than what we call an escalator. Reno’s device was actually installed in Coney Island for a brief time, where it lifted park patrons to the dizzying height of 7 feet. In 1902, Reno founded the Reno Electric Stairways and Conveyors, Ltd. and installed his invention in various locations. Otis eventually purchased Reno’s patents when Otis entered the field a few years later.

Another important name in the development of the modern escalator is Charles D. Seeberger. Working with Otis he installed the first step-type escalator made for public use at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 (where it won first prize). He applied for a patent on October 7, 1901, which bumped around the Patent Office for nearly a decade before issuing as U.S. Patent No. 994,879:

Seeberger received numerous patents on escalators, including U.S. Patent No. 999,885, 1,014,400. 1,014,856, 1,015,406, 1,020,060, 1,023,443, 1,025,316, 1,034,841. 1,043,542, 1,049,613, and 1,095,361.

Patents aside, Seeberger really is the inventor of the escalator. He coined the term from scala (Latin for steps) with elevator. He registered the term as his trademark on (Reg. No. 84,724) on May 29, 1900, which he eventually assigned to Otis. However, in 1950 in Haughton Elevator Company v. Seeberger, the registration on ESCALATOR was cancelled because the term had become generic. The decision noted the that escalator was used by Otis the same way as it used the generic term elevator, the Commissioner noting that “the word ‘escalator’ or “escalators’ is written in small letters and in the same manner and same context as the word ‘elevator’ or ‘elevators’ which obviously has not trade mark significance.” 85 U.S.P.Q. 80, 81 (Comm’r 1950). It is a common problem with inventors of something new, that the name they give their new product often becomes the generic name for that new product, particular if the the term is used carelessly.