For all our current anxiety about robots taking human jobs, it’s worth noting that only one of the 270 detailed occupations listed in the 1950 US Census has been eliminated by automation: The elevator operator.
The automatic elevator was the autonomous car of its day: It changed the way we travel through our everyday lives, and made the modern city possible. And the technology that made it all possible? The humble elevator button.
The rise (and rise) of the elevator button
1850s: The first elevators appear in department stores, office buildings, and luxury apartment buildings, bringing with them a new type of service employee: the elevator operator.
1880s: The first push-button elevators start to appear in private residences and other places where it wasn’t economical to employ an operator.
1915: Manufacturers install an automatic recording informing passengers that they are in an automated elevator, to fend off confusion or panic.
1936: New York City elevator operators go on strike, preventing more than a million office workers from getting to work.
1945: Another strike!
1950s: The shift toward operator-less elevators begins to take hold
1960s and beyond: Elevator operators are increasingly a rarity.
