Jesse Reno

While studying electrical engineering at Lehigh University, Jesse Reno invented the inclined elevator, a moving staircase that is grandfather to today’s escalator. Reno received the patent for his invention a year before completing his undergraduate studies in 1883.  He eventually sold the patent to the Otis Elevator Company, with whom he produced the nation’s first commercial escalator, installed as an attraction at New York’s Coney Island amusement park in 1896.  Reno’s inclined elevator was reportedly still in regular use as recently as 1994 in the Boston subway system.