On this date in 1892 Jesse W Reno patented the “inclined elevator” or the first escalator….
Jesse Wilford Reno, (August 4, 1861 – June 2, 1947) born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was an inventive young man who formulated his idea for an inclined moving stairway at age 16. After graduating from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, his engineering career took him to Colorado, then to Americus, Georgia where he is credited with building the first electric railway in the southern U.S. Reno submitted his first patent application for a “new and useful endless conveyor or elevator” in 1891. It became effective 15 months later. The machine was built and installed at Coney Island, Brooklyn, as an amusement ride in September 1895 More at the Elevator Museum
While I was researching this event I discovered that Jesse W. Reno is the son of Jesse L. Reno.
Jesse Lee Reno (April 20, 1823 – September 14, 1862) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War, the Utah War, the western frontier, and as a Union General during the American Civil War. Known as a “soldier’s soldier” who fought alongside his men, he was killed while commanding a corps at Fox’s Gap during the Battle of South Mountain. Reno County, Kansas, and Reno, Nevada, were named after him.
in 1861….
He transferred to Virginia, took command of the 2nd Brigade, Burnside Expeditionary Force, and soon had organized five regiments. The 2nd Brigade fought in Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition from February through July 1862. Reno became a division commander in the IX Corps,[2] which had become part of the Army of the Potomac. In the Northern Virginia Campaign, Reno actively opposed his friend and classmate Stonewall Jackson during the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chantilly. Reno was appointed a major general on August 20, 1862. (This promotion was confirmed posthumously on March 9, 1863, with date of rank established as July 18, 1862.)[7] Burnside became commander of the Army of the Potomac’s right wing for the start of the Maryland Campaign in September, elevating Reno to command of the IX Corps from September 3.[2]
The United States Army named three outposts after Reno: Fort Pennsylvania in present-day Washington, D.C., was renamed Fort Reno in 1862, Fort Reno was constructed near present-day El Reno, Oklahoma in 1874, the third Fort Reno was built in present-day Wyoming on the Bozeman Trail in 1865.
I guess you never know where you’ll end up once you start looking around!
