[Ads-l] ascending room

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Interesting topic, GAT. The term "ascending room" was used to describe
an early powered elevator built in London at "The Colosseum" according
to a website called "Made Up In Britain". Further below is a January
1829 citation in a London newspaper mentioning this "ascending room".

Website: Made Up In Britain
Article: Elevator - Thomas Hornor 1829
Last updated (internal website date): September 8, 2021
http://madeupinbritain.uk/Elevator

[Begin excerpt]
In 1823 Thomas Hornor built the first powered elevator he called the
“Ascending Room”. Hornor opened his London Colosseum, designed by
Decimus Burton, to the public on 10th January 1829 with it's lift to
take tourists up to a platform to view the London skyline.
[End excerpt]

Date: January 19, 1829
Newspaper: The Morning Journal
Newspaper Location: London, England
Article: The Colosseum
Quote Page 3, Column 2
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
The passage to the staircases is terminated by a room about 20 feet in
diameter; it is called the ascending-room, and is framed for the
accommodation of such as, from ailment or indolence, prefer an ascent
performed in half a minute by machinery to the more every-day method
of walking up stairs.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Tue, May 10, 2022 at 5:18 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> I.e., elevator.  Not in the OED.
>
> Reached Philadelphia at noon, and proceeded to Continental Hotel, in
> Chesnut-street,
> which is the same as Broadway, in New York.  On taking beds, seated
> ourselves in an ascending room, around which were crimson-cushioned sofas.  On
> reaching the sixth story, a door was opened, and we walked out to a passage
> about 15 feet wide, carpeted and along to 265 room, fitted up with marble
> washstands, chest of drawers, wardrobe, gas, &c.  Went down to supper by
> five flights of marble stairs.
>
> TRIP IN THE GREAT EASTERN.
> From the Log of an Australian.]
> The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), October 15, 1862
>
> This is from a new database released by the National Library of Australia,
> giving digitized articles from Australian newspapers and other sources.
> Trove
> https://trove.nla.gov.au/
>
> GAT
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>
> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
> your lowly tomb. . .
> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>
> The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
> picture of his great-grandfather.)
> http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org