Attributing to Otis Elevators. No Otis emblem but has the Otis numbers on reverse. Elevator Call Button, Antique Bronze Building Hardware Panel, Weight is close to 1 1/2 pounds. One of the coolest Otis call button I’ve come across.
This looks and feels bronze but could be brass and nonmagnetic. The back contact housing is magnetic. Numbered what looks like 1738-SW-1. Found some fun reading about this famous company from the great Wikipedia at bottom!
Button measures 8 3/8″ tall, 2 1/4″ wide and 3/8″ thick, 2 1/2″ deep counting back contact housing/screws but not buttons. Has scratches, scuffs, stains, tarnishing verdigris mostly on back, push buttons not perfectly centered but seem to be working by depressing in and them releasing. Fine looking piece of elevator history.
Push buttons work well and shows you how contact work with the open back. Missing wires and back housing box and maybe more.
Unusual to find Otis call buttons with contacts still attached. Cool historic find! Selling as collectible only, but if you want to restore it and use it good luck.
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.
