Dumbwaiters have been popular for many hundreds of years. They were used in castles in the middle ages and even by the Egyptians. Their popularity during the early 20th century is well documented and they were found in almost all apartment buildings. Most homes with multiple stories also had a dumbwaiter. By 1915, many companies had begun to make use of electric dumbwaiters as a means of conveniently and quickly transporting goods. One of the first electric dumbwaiters was installed into a Chicago department store and used to move packages from the delivery room to the store.

The storeroom of the store, which was located in the basement, was responsible for transporting goods throughout the rest of the store. Items that were sold also passed through the basement and were transferred to the shipping department. Without an efficient system, the work for the employees would have been very physically demanding, so the company decided to install 5 electric dumbwaiters.

The eight story department store made good use of these dumbwaiters, with two specifically dedicated to the shoe department, two spanning the entire eight floors, and one that serviced the mezzanine floor.

The two dumbwaiters that spanned the entire height of the building were controlled from the seventh floor, but each floor had a call button located by the shaft. When the call button was activated, the operator on the seventh floor moved the elevator to the desired floor. It was the responsibility of the operator to make certain that the dumbwaiter completed its task before moving to the next floor. The other dumbwaiters were controlled automatically by their call buttons.

These systems were very advanced at the time and incorporated some of the safety features that are common today. This includes systems that detected objects in the dumbwaiters path and stopped the dumbwaiter if an object was detected. Special sensors were also used that prevented the dumbwaiters from being operated if the door was opened.

Original Article from November 1913.