The Opelousas courier., 1892-01-23
ALL ABOUT THE ELEVATOR
HYDRAULIC STEAM AND ELEC-
TRIO POWER COMPARED.

The Svviftest Elevators-The Greatest
Now Building in New York
The Eiffei Tower Elevators.
Thirty or forty years ago Il passenger
Or a freight elevator was a curiosity to
be wondered at. Steam elevators came
frst. and then ten years afterward they
were followed by the hydraulic. To-day
the principle of construction involved IN
each class is identical with the original,
but the improvements in power, speed
and safety have been wonderful. The
business of constructing passenger and
/ freight elevators has reached enormous
proportions, and is growing with great
rapidity. At present more than 4ooO
elevators are used daily in this city.
The maximum speed of the fastest
passenger elevators which nave ever
been built is 1900 feet a miu%e, a rate
of one mile in three minutes and a frae-
ton. Sunol can do tee distance, &C,
cording to her latest performance, IN
2.084, while the railroad locomotive
with a mile-a-minute speed is easily the
leader Passenger elevators, however,
are like fast t~rotters and locomotives IN
this respect, that they do not always
travel at top speed.
With the modern elevator almost any
speed desired can be obtained; it all de-
ponds on the power used and the distance
travelled. In a building which has a
shaft of $50 feet-and they are few-a
speed of 800 to 1000 feet a minute can
be attained. On a rise Of $50 feet it IS
easy to get a speed of $50 feet a minute
with a weight of 1909 pounds aboard
the elevator.
In this city the fastest elevators are in
the Union Trust Company's building, on
Broadway, near Wall street. They can
shoot up or down, carrying 5000 pound
cargoes at a speed of 500 feet a minute.
When tested with lighter weights they
have travelled from 500 to 800 feet in a
minute. But Mr.. Brown says that IN his
opinion The average speed OF elevators In
office buildings il aud around New York
is 800 feet a minute. 1t is best adapted
for work, and experience has denonstra-
ted that more passengers can be carried
daily in a car going at that speed in the
ordinary large building than at any
other.
In mines, where the I'll is long and
frequently exceeds 1909 feet, the cages
go up and down at a surprising rate, but
there the power is supplied by larger
winding engines. It is not unusual tor
such cages to squirt at the rate of a mile
in every two minutes. To accomplish
that o tremendous steam engine of SOC
horse power would have to work at its
best.
The increase in the size of elevators
goes on in keeping with the rapid i'm
~Iprovenent in other directions. The
largest passenger cars in the world are
now in course of construction across the
Hudson at Weehawken under the super
vision of Engineer Brown. These ele-
'~vators, of which there are three, are de-
signed to carry 135 persons on each trip.
The cargo is equivalent to ten tons of
freight.
They will be owned by the North
Hudson County Railway Company. A
viaduct SIS feet in length has been built
out from the Palisades to a point above
the ferry depot. From the rails on the
viaduct to the river level, the distance
is $50 feet. An elevator shaft of that
extent is now building, and passengers
who cross the ferry will be transferred to
the elevators and thence to the trains,
instead of ascending the Palisades by the
inclined railway, as heretofore. Each
elevator will be worked by a force Of
200 horsepower. The hydraulic cylin.
ders will act under a pressure of 200
pounds to the square inch. The entire
plant will cost the company $4,000.
Elevators are expensive and luxurious,
but their use is gaining favor in private
house. The common elevators of small
business buildings are worth at least
$4,000. From that lowest value they
range up TO S13, 600 ia the same class of
buildings.
The American elevators in the EiffeI
tower were costly affairs. They are
somewhat similar to those now con.
structing at Weehawken, but have not
the same lifting eapacit7. The journey
to the highest platform, q distance of
more than 900 feet, is done by three ele-
vators. The longest run of any one
of them is 420 feet. Each can carry ff.
ty persons. These elevators are remark.
able because they do moi g up in q
straight line. Starting at an incline OF
flfty.four degrees, they run for u distance
of $50 Ieet, then around a vertical curve
Of fifty feet radius,a and then at an incline
averaging about seventy-eight degrees.
From an elevator point of view the
new Masonic Temple building in Chi.
cago will be the most important in the
world. It will have twenty-four cars
built in a circular shaft having a $50.
foot rise. There will be express eleva-
tors, way and freight trains. The first
will go up to the top aoor without stop
ping, while the Others will stop either at
every floor or at the fifth, tenth fifteenth
aud so on. They will not run at full
speed, probable because passengers do
not like the sensation of flying.
With the present safety devices it is
% e eAk - 49,