A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator (or lift) intended to carry objects rather than people. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaurants, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, retirement homes or in private homes, the lifts generally terminate in a kitchen.[1][2] The term seems to have been popularized in the United States in the 1840s, after the model of earlier "dumbwaiters" now known as serving trays and lazy Susans.[3] The mechanical dumbwaiter was invented by George W. Cannon, a New York City inventor. Cannon first filed for the patent of a brake system (US Patent no. 260776) that could be used for a dumbwaiter on January 6, 1883.[4] Cannon later filed for the patent on the mechanical dumbwaiter (US Patent No. 361268) on February 17, 1887.[5] Cannon reportedly generated a vast amount of royalties from the dumbwaiter patents until his death in 1897. Early 20th-century codes sometimes required fireproof dumbwaiter walls and self-closing fireproof doors and mention features such as buttons to control movement between floors and locks on doors preventing them from opening unless the cart is stopped at that floor.[7] Dumbwaiter Lifts in London were extremely popular in the houses of the rich and privileged. Maids would use them to deliver laundry to the laundry room from different rooms in the house. They negated the need to carry handfuls of dirty washing through the house, saving time and preventing injury.