Elevators and Elevator Accessories

December 10, 2009 4:45 PM

This post is for elevator enthusiasts.
posted by Taft (27 comments total)

An elevator for the daring
posted by Artw at 4:49 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Intuitionists only, please. Fuck those fucking empiricists!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:50 PM on December 10, 2009

Artw, if that paternoster thing is real how the hell do the upward moving cars get switched to moving downward? Particularly without interrupting the motion of the whole chain?
posted by localroger at 5:10 PM on December 10, 2009

The paternoster looks like a great way to get cut in half.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:19 PM on December 10, 2009

Localroger - imagine a ferris wheel car on a bike chain. You go over the top, like Sly Stallone.
posted by stenseng at 5:31 PM on December 10, 2009

How does a paternoster work?
posted by lyam at 5:32 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

It works by magic.

(I once interviewed at a company that had a pasternoster - it was a bit scarry getting on to it. I didn't spend time messing about with it, as that would have been acting weird in an employment limiting way, only I didn't get the job, so I really I should have done anyway. Anyhow, I didn't get decapitated that time. )
posted by Artw at 5:33 PM on December 10, 2009

Pneumatic, hydraulic, and dieselducy youtube guy who does mostly elevator reviews, as well as the elevator museum timeline.

Most days the misogyny of the second link would barely ping my radar, but for some reason today I'm tired of it. There are other reasons for a woman to want defensible space that have nothing to do with race.
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:33 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

The cars are suspended from a swivel at the top of the car. Diagram of paternoster. ObWikipediaLink.
posted by hattifattener at 5:35 PM on December 10, 2009

Thanks for the explanation, lyam - that's pretty cool.

For scary, you can't beat the endless belt manlift, AKA the Humphrey lift. No riding over the top and back down on that one! (I once toured an industrial facility that had one but they didn't let visitors on it - they didn't even like their employees riding it, to be honest.)
posted by Quietgal at 5:38 PM on December 10, 2009

About ArtW's link: "See you at de party, Rickter!"
posted by autodidact at 5:55 PM on December 10, 2009

This must be elevator day. I just discovered the elevator subreddit. "For elevator enthusiasts." I had no idea.
posted by zardoz at 6:02 PM on December 10, 2009

I used to do service work at a local bakery that had a homemade elevator just barely one notch above Quietgal's manlift. This same bakery also had, as their electrician explained, "hot conduits and power taps runnin' off the hot conduits" which was why touching any random piece of metal in the place was likely to be painful. Their product was wonderful but it might be fortunate that Katrina ended their business.
posted by localroger at 6:46 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Quietgal - is this the same one?
posted by Artw at 7:19 PM on December 10, 2009

And don't miss "Welcome, to Elevator World ..."
posted by woodblock100 at 7:49 PM on December 10, 2009

A while back I read this elevator article in the New Yorker. I have recommended it to a good number of people; it much much more interesting than I would have ever believed an article about elevators could possible be.
posted by paisley henosis at 7:53 PM on December 10, 2009

The paternoster looks like a great way to get cut in half.

This happened in my city and I think about it every time some jackass tries to force his or herself through closing elevator doors:

His head was severed when the elevator car moved upward. A female hospital employee witnessed the accident and spent about 20 minutes trapped inside the malfunctioning elevator until firefighters were able to rescue her.

posted by Burhanistan at 7:57 PM on December 10, 2009

well the coolest elevator i ever rode was in paris. it rides up the black metal structure inside the arc seen in this video the elevator is glass walled.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 8:20 PM on December 10, 2009

What if I'm a guy who just likes elevators?
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:37 PM on December 10, 2009

"It is not dangerous to over ride, provided you stand still."

Did anyone else see that sticker in the shaft on the paternoster video?? Does that mean what I think it means?
posted by lizjohn at 9:07 PM on December 10, 2009

Am I too drunk to understand the purpose of this post?

We could do it like this...
this post is for WATER enthusiasts!
posted by Theta States at 9:21 PM on December 10, 2009

Is it bad that immediately noticed the music?
posted by niles at 9:52 PM on December 10, 2009

lizjohn: Yeah, it means you can stay in the thing over the top of the circuit. There are sometimes exposed mechanicals, so you should be careful. A popular prank on newbies is to have them watch you go over to "prove it's safe", then do a handstand while up in the plenum.
posted by indyz at 10:35 PM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

scenes from an elevator.
posted by nicolin at 2:09 AM on December 11, 2009

The paternoster is really great from an efficiency and mechanical POV, but really terrible from an accessibility POV.
posted by DU at 6:20 AM on December 11, 2009

Artw, that's the type of manlift I was talking about but it's in a different place. The one I saw was even scarier because it was a freestanding exposed shaft, with a bunch of metal hoops forming a safety guard. Except it looked like you could slice your scalp off on those hoops if you leaned back to see up ahead. I'm sure it wasn't really as dangerous as it looked - this was a union shop and OSHA would have shut that thing down in a heartbeat if there were any problems with it - but it was kind of creepy fun to imagine all kinds of slasher flick scenarios in it. (Any budding film-makers around? Gotcher next location right here!)
posted by Quietgal at 9:51 AM on December 11, 2009

Don't forget the muppets!
posted by obol at 2:33 PM on December 11, 2009