3 37 The Illusion of Truth
3 37 The Illusion of Truth Early art for one of several patent applications for a moving staircase, a.k.a. the "Escalator" Committing Genericide Convenience is a dastardly foe. In 1950, it fooled a company (as it had the rest of humanity) into changing the perception of its own greatest invention , a blindside which ultimately cost them one of the most important trademarks of the 21st century. An inventor named Charles Seeberger began working for the Otis Elevator Company at the turn of the century. Thanks to his careful purchase of several unrealized patents bearing a similarity to his newest invention, Charles was able to not only provide his employer with a world-changing machine, Otis itself would retain any and all legal control of the trademarked named. Charles consulted a Latin lexicon and devised a term which loosely described a thing as "a means of traversing from" -- it was to be pronounced "es-CAL-a-tor", much like He-Mans arch nemesis. Thus, th...