Elevators and Elevator Accidents Elevators are everywhere. Some are relatively slow while others travel at the maximum speed to transport us comfortably. Originally there was an operator when you got into an elevator. You couldn’t call him a driver, because the elevator only went up or down. His duty was to stop on the floors people wanted to get out on or stop for those wanting to get on. I guess the operator knew almost everyone who worked in his building, because he saw them almost every day. Then it happened, automatic elevators began to be installed and they didn’t need an operator. Some women were worried, because they didn’t want to be in an elevator alone when an unknown man got in. They mostly got over this at least in business elevators, but this fear is still there in some women in elevators in apartment buildings and I guess you can’t blame them, because there are just too many cases of elevator rapes and robberies. In 1853 Peter Cooper’s Cooper Union Foundation building in New York was built with an elevator shaft even though when it was designed there weren’t any modern elevators invented yet. Cooper was convinced that by the time the building was finished there would be a safe elevator invented. Don’t get fooled by this. The Romans used elevators in the Coliseum to raise animals up to ground level with a system of ropes and pullies and Archimedes built an elevator around 236 BC, but it didn’t resemble the modern elevator. Elevators in ancient times were more like boxes being raised and lowered by animals or by pulling on ropes. Many Medieval elevators used a windlasses or hoist. In the 19th century elevators used steam power and were used in places like mines. In 1835 an elevator with a counterweight was invented. On the docs, the steam powered elevator was succeeded by the hydraulic crane. In 1845 Gaetano Genovese invented an elevator which was covered with fancy wood. It had a light, benches and hand operated signal and was capable of being operated from the outside. It used a cog wheel and had a safety system if the rope broke. The breakthrough came in 1852 when Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator. Did he learn the value of a safety system from Genovese? This elevator was very similar to the ones we use today. Rollers on guides would engage if the elevator picks up excessive speed. It had its first installation on March 23, 1857. The problem was Cooper had a cylindrical shaft put into his building, but Otis designed a special elevator for it. The first electric elevator was invented by Schuyler Wheeler and patented in 1883. The first electric elevator was built in Germany by Werner von Siemens in 1880. Notice that was three years before Wheeler patented his idea. The funny part of this is completely automated elevators were available as early as 1900, but people were scared to use them, thus the elevator operators were around for a long time after that. Elevators are not without their problems, although many of them could be avoided with proper maintenance. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission stated in 2017 elevators and escalators kill about 30 and seriously injure about 17,000 people a year. On woman had two dogs on leashes. She entered an elevator and selected her floor. When the doors closed she realized one of the dogs had its leash caught in the doors. The dog flew toward the doors as the elevator began to move. Franticly the woman tried to pull the dog away and broke both of her fingers before being able to release the dogs collar and saving its life. One man got into an elevator which malfunctioned and shot up at a speed in excess of 50 miles per hour hitting the top floor roof. The man had to be taken to the hospital and was lucky to be alive. He had injuries to his head and legs. An elevator full of people was descending when it stopped and the doors opened on a floor. A woman went to get out, but the doors closed on her neck and the elevator started to descend again. The people in the elevator tried to pull her out from between the doors but she was decapitated. One woman in an apartment building was pushing her baby carriage down the hall toward the elevator. She was going to take the elevator down to the street and take her baby for a walk. The elevator doors opened and she pushed the carriage in before realizing there was no elevator there and the baby carriage and baby fell several stories killing the baby. In 2017 a man fell down the elevator shaft at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square in New York. It was not clear if it was an accident or suicide. A woman executive was getting into an elevator in 2016 when her foot got caught in the door. As the elevator rose she was dragged into the shaft killing her. It seems most elevator accidents are caused by two major factors. One is the doors open and there is no elevator there and someone steps into the shaft without looking. The other major factor seems to be getting caught in the doors. Elevators are supposed to have sensors which prevent the doors from closing if something is in the way, because of this it is hard to imagine getting caught in elevator doors and yet this happens all to frequently. Professional elevator repairmen say it is important to have maintenance done on elevators by professions, because of all the sensors and such. By and large elevators are one of the safest things we have, but they are not perfect, but if maintained properly they could come close. |
