Industrial Hydraulic Lifts Elevating materials throughout early history was deemed more important than lifting people, although isolated attempts were made to elevate Royalty and Princes of the Church within their domiciles. Loads of materials in most instances were much heavier than a cabin of passengers, prompting much thought to lifting cargo by hydraulic power, a form that could be multiplied in a variety of ways. The idea for lifting loads by hydraulics was envisioned by Yorkshireman Joseph Bramah who received a patent in 1795 for the principle of a hydraulic press. He is better known for his experimentation and patenting of the all-important leather cup that would contain the water under pressure within a cylinder, yet allow the easy movement of the piston. He foresaw high pressure mains in English towns in one of his last patents in 1812 but half a century had to pass before practical application. That practical usage was the brain child of Sir William Armstrong in 1848. Low pressure lifting machines were developed thereafter with large diameter cylinders. To power the industrial lifts to load the vessels of "Her Majesty's Fleet," British engineers came to use a source older than England, herself -- the water of the River Thames. Few activities were more important than keeping commerce moving through the docks of London, then the world's largest city. In 1871, Parliament gave monopolistic powers to the Wharves and Warehouses Steam Power and Hydraulic Pressure Company, and by 1883, it laid seven miles of mains on either side of the river with 700 pounds per square foot being generated at the Falcon Wharf Pumping station. Intensifiers and accumulators augmented chains, ropes and sheaves to increase industrial capacity of hydraulic power.