The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-11-25
MODERN SAVERS OF LEGS
In Interesting Account Of How Els-
vators Do Their Helpful
Work.
In a Large City Hundreds OF
Thousands Ride on Them
Daily.
One Lift viii Carry 10000 Persons II
Day-How Some of Them Arc
Operated.

Five hundred thousand men ride in the
elevators of New York city every day OF
the year, and not one man Of them in Il
hundred has more than the vaguest idea
how these shooting cars work. As for
tho 100, 900 or SO women who daily call
out "up'' or down" tho percentage who
know what "makes the thing go' would
be ~shockingly small.
To get some more precise ideas about
these vertical railways, the writer went
down tho other day into subterranean
New York, into those wonderful, modern
catncombs where engines throb and cleo
tricity takes its birth, under one of the
great down town buildings, which con
tains no less than 81 elevators, 81 for pas
sengers, 10 for freight.
a strange and unfamiliar region is this,
where giant wheels, belted 10 other
wheels. make the foundations tremble and
the air roar in ones ears.
"~IIere," said the engineer, to whom all
this was rs familiar as the schoolroorn to
its teacher, there are the boilers which
supply steam to work the elevator pumps
and TO turn the dynamos. There are nine
of them, each Is feet long and 6 feet in
diameter. They burn 1875 tons of coal Il
week, winter and summer The seasons
way Sit'iS "ihNA.hSSS - 10 OAN"SS
the same down here.
",Now come this way, and you will see
how this steam makes the pumps send
water up to tho tanks at the top of the
building-5,o 600 gallons of it a minute.
Say they work at full pressure half the
time, or four hours a day, that gives $780,
900 gallons pumped up about 200 feet,
which means nearly $40, 000, 900 foot
pounds of energy a day to run the ele
vatOrs alone.
"Nos so bad, is it? And the beauty Of
it is that in doing this work we use the
water over and over again; pumped into
the tanks above, then discharged into the
big tank down here then through the
pumps again and so on until we change it
for cleanliness
"And how does the water run through
the elevators?"
~ can make that plain to you in two
minutes. You see each elevator has its
water tank at the top of the building and
its own hydraulic machine at the bottom,
and the W are connected by an 8 inch
iron pipe. That pipe let's the water from
above into the 8 foot cylinder of the hy-
draulic machine, and this water is kept by
the pumps at a pressure of 100 pounds to
the square inch.
consequently whenever the water
presses into the cylinder it drives this pis-
ton rod out to it's full length, l6 feet, with
the force of some scores of tons-the cal
culation is easy if you remember the for
mula. Now this piston rod in moving
pulls apart what you might call the two
blocks of an enormous pulley, with five
wheels in each block.
"Here they are, see. And the wire rope
which runs around these pulley wheels
goes over a wheel up under the roof, and
then down till it catches the top of the
elevator car. AS there are 10 wheels in
the two pulley blocks the end Of the rope
with the car attached travels 10 times as
far as the piston rod does, or 10 times 16
feet, which is the distance the elevator
travels up and down"
"What brings the piston back and the
elevator DOWN."
"The changing of this valve where the
iron pipe joins the cylinder. When the
valve is thrown one way, the water presses
into the cylinder, and up goes the ele-
vator; when the valve is thrown the other |
way, the pressure on the piston is relieved
and the water is discharged into the tank
over there, through these pipes. Then the
comes down by its own weight
and that of the passengers.
"The valve is worked by the elevator
boy when he pulls the cord either way,
and if he should forget to pull the cord
the valve would act automatically, Just
~ the valves in an engine do.
1.-The wider the valve is opened. going
either way, the faster the car goes, up to
certain point, where, whatever might
even supposing the valve to burst,
\ separate attachment, consisting of an
independent cable, would stop the car by
the action OF What we call the safety gov
arnor. There you have the whole thing
in Il nutshell"
And what ifthe wire rope which holds
thec car should break2"
1.-The elevator would stop instantly. "a
1t would also il one of the fOur ropcs-for
there are four, not one-shoulQ even
The car would stop because by
reason of a simple device n series OF
wedges would be thrown out and grip the
iron frame in which the elevator slides.
The heavier the load the harder the wedges
would hold"
In some elevators the big cylinder is
visible above the floor in IL vertical instead
IL horizontal position, with the pulley
wheels scattered along at intervals on the
way up, as if to give the passengers food
for reflection.
In some again there is no water tank at
the top of the building, the requisite pres
sure being obtained by pumping com |
pressed air. These are details which con-
Germ the elevator men only, and not the
general public. 1t is a splendid achieve
to nave mastered the main point Of
single system.
One point which l found interesting is
The question of speed. How fast do these
cover Il day?
This merely depends upon the number
1f pulley wheels you nave attached TO your
piston rod. With six, seven or ten pairs
Of pulley wheels, instead of five pairs. the
just undcr consideration would
32, Ga or 100 feet further for each
stroke OF the piston than they do at pres.
ent.
The present rate is 500 feet n minute. so
10 pairs of pulleys would give |, 900 feet a
minute. Twenty pairs would give 200
feet II minute, 40 pairs 4 900 feet a minute
ana so pairs 5000 feet IL minute, or over
miles an hour. Theoretically there is
limit, but as a matter of fact, with
these constant stoppages at every floor,
the present speed of elevators is consid- /
cred as great as will ever become advisab Bile.
Already III express elevators in Chicago,
IN such human Beehiyes as the Rookery.
where no stop is made before the tenth or
floor, elevators are run at the rate
Of 500 feet Il minute.
The average New York elevator NAV he
said to carry 90 passengers; many carry
more, some less: but. taking these Il on rea