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The first skyscrapers

Not everyone knows about the history of skyscrapers and how they appeared. This is quite an interesting story about it in our new article.

As time went on, the little company has grown and evolved into a powerful Corporation, and a new generation of industrial and financial magnates demanded for their headquarters all the more impressive areas.

Demand for new offices has successfully coincided with the development in the nineteenth century technology, a new type of buildings skyscrapers. 1880 the construction of buildings above the 9 floors were considered irrational, because buildings made of brick, require such strength of reason, that even the doors and Windows in the lower floors to open was not safe, however, many small and one big innovation skyscrapers suddenly became possible. The main innovation consisted in the fact that the walls of houses began to make more light, because the building was not on them, on a steel frame.

The word skyscraper (skyscraper) existed in England since 1794 and was used in various meanings: high hat, high ball in baseball, the top sail on the ship. For the first time this word is used to describe the house in 1888 (although the term building appeared four years before that) and not in New York as one would think, a in Chicago. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Chicago was the leading city of the world in the construction of large structures for a very simple reason because of the devastating fire of 1871.

The first Chicago skyscraper was a building of the Insurance company houses built in the years 1883-1885, which was quickly followed by the Leiter Building (1889), Building confidence (1894) and the House of Carson, Pirie and Scott (1889). Soon the skyscrapers so altered cityscape (urban landscape, Americanism 1850) across America that the word skyline, which meant the earlier "horizon line", acquired its modern meaning the outlines of the skyscrapers against the sky.

Skyscrapers were born in Chicago, but their true home was New York. First New York skyscraper, the new York world building, opened in 1890, and soon coming up from the city and other high rise building: Pulitzer (1892, 93 meters), Flatiron (iron) (1903, 86 meters), times tower (1904, 110 meters), singer (1908, 180 meters), Metropolitan life (1909, 210 meters), and finally built in 1913, the Woolworth Building (240 meters).

It seemed that nothing greater than It is with its 58 floors, where he worked for 14 000 people to build it is impossible, indeed, for seventeen years it was the tallest building in the world until 1930, not built Chrysler. It was 77 floors, and he was almost one and a half times higher than the Woolworth's (320 meters). In accordance with the project, Chrysler was supposed to have a height of 282 meters, but the rival architect decided to build on 40th street the building at 60 cm above.

Then the architect of the Chrysler van Allen hastily and secretly designed 37 meter steel spire that has become a remarkable decoration of the building. Absolute superiority Chrysler kept very long. Ego has not had time to finish, when on the 5th Avenue on the site of the hotel Waldorf Astoria began work on an even more ambitious project of the Empire state building. Rising in height of 381 meters, 102 story building held the world championship for forty three years, while in Chicago in 1974, not built the 110 story, 443 meter, murderous, ugly Sears tower.

The use of steel frame and light walls allowed in principle to build a high rise building, but does not solve all problems. Had to do a lot of improvements to these houses can operate. Among them were revolving doors, which allowed to avoid the draft, which prevented normally to regulate the temperature of buildings and the fire risk is extremely, a most importantly, we needed a quick and safe passenger elevators.

It is believed that the Elevator was invented by Elisha Otis, although various lifting devices have long existed, when Otis became famous in the late 1850. He never claimed that he invented the Elevator. His contribution was the invention of a simple, reliable device spring loaded mechanism with clamps on the gears, is made using a vertical lift safe.

Adoring the spectacular show, Otis traveled around the world, demonstrating the safety of constructed elevators. The Elevator where he was standing, pulled on the rope to a height of 15 meters, and his assistant, to the dismay of the audience, this cut the rope with an ax, but the lift managed to fall only a few inches before Otis invented the mechanism it stopped. Orders ego device received hundreds. (And it's still the first elevators were not very reliable. In 1911, the "new York tribune" reported that over the previous two years at least 2,600 people have been killed or injured in accidents associated with elevators).

Skyscrapers unrecognizably changed the appearance of American cities, but almost nothing is added to American speech. They say that the expression twenty three, meaning slang for "get out soon" appeared thanks to the skyscraper of iron located at the intersection of 23rd street, 5th Avenue and Broadway.

The unusual geometry of the house was allegedly created strong drafts, raising the skirts of women on the approach to the building at 23rd street, where the men met to stare at women's legs, but the police was alert and drove the onlookers by this outburst. Unfortunately, no evidence of this theory exists. It is known that the word, meaning "to escape", was prolific in the invention of neologisms cartoonist T. A. Dorgan working in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, but how it is inseparably associated with the number 23 remains (like many others) unknown.

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