Devices for the vertical transport of people and cargo have been known since ancient times. They consist mainly of a platform or cabin for the passengers or cargo, a rope with block and tackle, and a counterweight to the load being transported. Over time, the driving force in the lifting devices has been provided by animals, then steam, and finally the electric motor. The passenger lift cabin presented here, made of wood on a steel frame, was used in the Press Palace on Wielopole street in Kraków. It features a unique safety feature in the event that the rope snaps – a device that would catch the cabin in guides, developed by the American designer Elisha Graves Otis around the middle of the 19th century. The cabin was built in the 1920’s at a Viennese factory specialising in the production of metal safes and lift devices, F. Wertheim & Comp. The company was established in 1852 by Franz Wertheim, a tool manufacturer. In 1869, to mark the occasion of the sale of 20,000 fireproof safes of its own design, it commissioned the work Feuerfest (“Fire Festivity”) from Joseph Strauss. The title relates to the spectacular fire resistance tests of Wertheim’s safes that earned them widespread recognition throughout Europe.

References:
Biography of the founder, official website of Wertheim company, http://www.wertheim.at/en/company/biography-of-the-founder.html (Accessed on 7.05.2021).