The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-04

ble is that which carries many millions of persons on frequent journeys from | the ground floor to the upper stories of ! tall buildings and down again. Apart from the men who run elevators, few have more than faint conception of | the volume of this traffic. The passen- l gers who are daily whisked up stairs in l a jiffy by these soaring cars, it is esti- mated, outnumber all those who reach the city by way of the ferries, bridges and elevated trains. The same per sons pass over these twice a day, com ing and going. but they will go up and down in elevators at least four times a day, and perhaps twice as often.
 In New York there are said to be ten thousand passenger elevators, great and small. The most expensive of these, those, for example, in the man. moth eSkyscrapers, cost as high as ten thousand dollars each. Those in the smaller buildings may cost as low as five hundred dollars each. Taking one thousand dollars as the average cost of each elevator, all the elevators of this city represent the enormous outlay of ten million dollars. In general, the taller the structure, the more expensive the machine, although some of the big hotels have elevators that for costliness rival those of the tall buildings down town.
 The vast extent of the elevator sys- tenn and it's volume of traffic in New York are only roughly estimated, but the following figures quoted by H. P. Kallman, of the Fidelity, Casualty and Surety company, which apply in the main to their inspection in this city, give anapproximate idea.
 If the shaftways of the elevators were placed one on another, they would ex- tend upwards of one hundred and twenty-sfx miles. All the cables joined together would reach seven hundred and fifty-fve miles. The combined ele- vators travel altogether 33,245 miles a year and carry 1862, 25O passengers a day. Each of them stops at 39,S94 land ings in the course of a year. To care for and operate them requires force of fifteen thousand men.
 The marvellous feature about it all is that so few accidents happen. A mere touch awry, the slightest carelessness 1 or lack of attention, loose screw or a brake out of order, might cause dire catastrophe in the twinkling of an eye, l Upon the shoulders of the men who guide the elevators rests a responsibili- ty like that of the sea captain or the railroad engineer. Many lives are for the moment iny,theirs keeping. They must be quick of eye, prompt in action, alert to many calls. and courteous withal To their trained efficiency most of all is due the safety of their human l cargoes.
 l In spite of all, an accident occasional ly will happen through the carelessness of passengers in permitting arms or feet i to project beyond the line of the car. Accidents through defect of the ma chinery are rare, owing to the careful supervision of the machines. These are kept in perfect order, and many a ca | lamity is forestalied by the daily and monthly inspections that are made. Every morning the big elevators are in- spected by the engineers attached to the large buildings. In addition to this, monthly or quarterly inspections are made by the assurance companies in- terested. Finally, the building. depart ment of the city makes a quarterly in sDection.
 The requirements of this department are much more rigid to-day than they were in former years. For instance, double-decked cars--that is those hav- ing a passenger car above and a bag gage compartment below-are no longer permitted. All passenger elevators must be provided with the safety speed governor to arrest the descent of the car automatically in event of an acci- dent. Further, all hoistways must be fireproof throughout, with glass sky light at the top in order that the hoist ures may be drenched with water in case of fire. When the speed of the cars is three hundred and fifty feet a minute the elevator must have three feet clearance at the top and bottom of
 hoistway. Where the speed is as high
 as five hundred feet, this clearance must be five feet. Another safety re-
 quirement is that counterweight guide
 rails must be inclosed for distance of
 fifteen feet down from the top, to pre-
 vent the weights from falling on the
 top of the car in case of accident. As
 important as any is the rule that all
 passenger elevators must be in charge
 of competent operators, and any re-
 commentators for improvements and
 repairs must be compiled with at once
 These are the more salient regulations
 that insure the safety of passengers
 who ride on the city elevators. As 6
 result, the ordinary probability of acci.
 dents is reduced to the vanishing point
 Should a fire start some day in one ol
 the skyscrapers, all these precautions
 and all the discipline and skill of the
 elevator men may not be able to pre-
 vent a panic, where the way of escape
 would be besieged by thousands.
 An idea of how the elevators arc
 managed and what they do in the
 course of day is best seen in the higf
 downtown buildings. In the Standard
 Oil building, which has fifteen stories
 ten elevators are in service. Between the hours Of S:30 a. m. and 5:30 D. m each elevator makes two hundred anC sixty round trips, and carries at leas fifteen hundred passengers day eaef jway. This makes a total of thirty
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