Alexander Miles. “Improvements in Elevators” U.S. Patent 371,207, 11 October, 1887

Patent, by African American inventor Alexander Miles, for new and useful improvements in elevators. The patent relates to mechanisms for closing the openings to the shafts of passenger and freight elevators and for operating the doors of elevator cages.

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Alexander Miles Patent Improvements in Elevators
Alexander Miles. “Improvements in Elevators” U.S. Patent 371,207, 11 October, 1887

Photograph of Alexander Miles: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1900). Alexander Miles, One of the Founders of the City of Duluth, Minnesota; Successful Business Man; Head of The United Brotherhood, the First Fraternal Insurance Company to Be Organized Among Colored People Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-70e5-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Accessed 3, Feb 2019

Photograph of Patent: United States Patent and Trademark Office