The first mention of the closest thing to elevators were cabs in the monastery in Sinai, Egypt. The cabs moved using ropes that were pulled by hands.
Archimedes of Syracuse (287B.C.-212 B.C.), the Greek engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor was the first to built an elevator by the year 236 B.C..
Konrad Kyeser (1366-1405), the German engineer and author designed an elevator by the year 1405.
Elevators motion was based on hoists or winders till the invention of leadscrew. The Russian mechanic and inventor Ivan Petrovich Kulibin (April 21, 1735 – August 11, 1818) invented the first elevator based on the leadscrew in the year 1793.
The 19th century witnessed many types of hydraulic freight carrying elevators, as the elevator of Henry Waterman in the year 1850 and the elevator of the American Elisha Otis (1811-1861) in the year 1852.
In the year 1857, Elisha Otis made the first passenger elevator.
J.W. Meaker was the first to produce safe system for opening and closing the elevators in the year 1874.
The American inventor Alexander Miles was the first to invent the automatic doors for elevators.