Seeberger escalators

[jimbo]

Underground News has been running an interesting series of articles on the Engineering Committee meetings of LU's predecessor, on the formation of London Transport in the 1930s, a time of great advances. The March 2022 feature has a number of references to Seeberger escalators, a term with which I was unfamiliar. A search of this site revealed the only mentions in the thread about The Reno Circular 'Escalator' here

    The escalator as we know it was later re-designed by Charles Seeberger in 1897, who created the name 'escalator' …..
    Charles Seeberger, together with the Otis Elevator Company produced the first commercial escalator in 1899 at the Otis factory in Yonkers, N.Y. The Seeberger-Otis wooden escalator won first prize at the Paris
        1900 Exposition .....
    Charles Seeberger sold his patent rights for the escalator to the Otis Elevator Company in 1910

Since the first escalators arrived in 1911 at Earl's Court station, I always believed they were Otis machines, but perhaps they became known in London as Seeberger escalators to differentiate from more modern Otis machines with cleated steps and straight ends. The older machines were built to a different incline, which requires special consideration to this day for maintenance and replacement.

[zbang]

Interesting, there's another rat-hole to follow.

[rapidtransitman]

There may be something on Seeberger escalators in the London Reconnections spiral escalator article.

[jimbo]

Afraid not. Not found in LT Museum collections search either! But here is a type A escalator showing shunt end for departure only, not needed for entry onto escalator here

[rapidtransitman]

Mar 30, 2022 20:21:36 GMT jimbo said:

Afraid not. Not found in LT Museum collections search either! But here is a type A escalator showing shunt end for departure only, not for entry here

Perhaps MAC Horne looked into the origins of escalators, on his remarkably detailed website investigations.

[jimbo]

Correct: Escalators, inclined elevators and myths, posted on May 19, 2013 by machorne see says “The Earls Court machines … were initially referred to as Seeberger machines, though the official designation became ‘A’ type as newer types of machine became available.” but the Engineering Committee minutes in Underground News make no reference to 'A' type machines!

[zbang]

BTW, searching "seeberger escalator london" turns up a fair few pages, although none of the ones I checked had much depth to them.