Denver Colorado’s Union Station offers travelers a choice when they arrive at the terminal for it’s pedestrians between the stairs and an escalator when entering the station from the bus terminal. Early escalators were known by a variety of names, including “traveling staircase,” “inclined elevator” and “magic stairway.” Around 1900, Charles Seeberger, who designed the forerunner of the modern escalator, came up with the name that finally stuck. His term “escalator” is a combination of “elevator” and “scala,” the Latin word for steps.
An escalator is a conveyor type transport device that moves people. It is a moving staircase with steps that move up or down using a conveyor belt and tracks keeping each step horizontal for the passenger. However, the escalator began as an amusement and not as a practical transport. The first patent relating to an escalator-like machine was granted in 1859 to a Massachusetts man for a steam driven unit. On March 15 1892, Jesse Reno patented his moving stairs or inclined elevator as he called it. In 1895, Jesse Reno created a new novelty ride at Coney Island from his patented design, a moving stairway that elevated passengers on a conveyor belt at a 25 degree angle.