Hello and welcome back to the Curious Kid podcast. Hello and welcome back to the Curious Kid podcast.

Sometimes inventions come around that change the world in a big way.

We've discussed many of those inventions already, such as the internet, batteries, toilets, and light bulbs.

This week, we get curious about another groundbreaking invention.

This week we are getting curious about elevators! That's right. If you didn't know what an elevator was and you heard the word, you might be able to make a good guess as to what an elevator would look like.

That's because the word elevate means to lift something up.

And that's exactly what elevators do. So elevator is a very fitting name. What's the question

of the week? If you took an elevator all the way to the moon, how long would it take to get there?

Okay. For this question, it's important to consider an elevator that travels at typical elevator

speeds. There are some elevators out there that are super fast, but we are asking how long it would

take an elevator traveling at regular

speed to get to the moon. Elevators have been around for a very long time. Elevators date back to the

3rd century BC, but those elevators were obviously very different from the ones we use today. They were

invented by the mathematician Archimedes. Those elevators were used to carry things, not people.

And those elevators were usually powered by humans or by animals.

Moderan elevators were created in the late 1800s.

In the year 1852, a man by the name of Alicia Graves Otis made elevators safer.

Mr. Otis started a company from manufacturing elevators.

And the Otis Elevator Factory is the world's largest manufacturer of elevators today.

In the 1880s, there were two big improvements in elevators.

First, the elevators were run on electricity. That's a big deal, because it allowed elevators. First, the elevators will run on electricity.

That's a big deal, because it allowed elevators to be faster and more efficient.

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