Sunday, April 27, 2008
A Fetish For Elevators
Okay, I don't have a fetish for elevators, but I came across this interesting article about elevators that tells us a lot about how much these mostly overlooked transportation tools have had effects on our lives.Some interesting points to note:
- Someone was stuck in an elevator for 41 hours before!
- The only documented free-falling American elevator did not cause any deaths even though there was one passenger on board.
- A lot of features we see in lifts today are actually attempts to psychologically make us feel more comfortable travelling in a small enclosed space.
- There's a lot of complexity to be considered when designing a lift.
- There's a relatively new method of dispatching lifts called the "destination dispatch" system which the MOE building at Buona Vista uses (they have like 10+ lifts serving that relatively short building, dounno why).
- There's also an "arrival immediate prediction lantern", which we usually see in shopping centers, where a lift is allocated to you as soon as you press the call button.
- There seems to be a fixed way people arrange themselves or behave in lifts.
- There's no point in jumping up before the point of impact in a free falling elevator.
And here's a very interesting part that I believe everyone should know:
"In the old system—board elevator, press button—you have an illusion of control; elevator manufacturers have sought to trick the passengers into thinking they’re driving the conveyance. In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten
Oh, and here's a sped up video of the 41 hours the guy spent trapped:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators
Have fun!
