The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-02
NEW Observation-Disclosures
GETTING UP AND DOWN STAIRS
A SERIOUS PROBLEM,
Five Years o. Time and I.OOO,O 900 Horse
Power o. Energy Expended Every nay
In This Way-And Only Two Methods
OF Progression, BESIDES Walking.

ten story DullulngS are nOWf salu the
man who likes to ask questions for other
people TO answer
HWell. it's not such a small problem
now replied the man with the head for
figures, 'I have been making a few cal
culatione which might surprise you." And
then he came back-w VII this:
Could all the stairs assembled and de-
scended daily by residents in the city OF
New York DO grouped into one enormous
stair representing the total that stair would
be 5000 miles In height. Great as are the
problems Of horizontal travel. those OF
vertical travel are hardly less.
What with stair climbing TO and from
the subway and the elevated. In the older
office buildings, and especially In homes,
IL Is a conservative estimate which figures
that 5000, 900 stair trips Of one fight each
are made In New York daily. Allowing
thirty seconds for each trip this means
that every day a total Of 2.5OO.oOO minutes.
equal to a, 660 hours, 1.780 days, or almost
FIVE years, is spent by New Workers. in
ascending and descending stairs. In a
year the total OF the time spent In this
way amounts to more than 633,e00 days, OF
almost .75o years.
The energy which New Workers expend
in thus raising themselves In the world
amounts to more than 100000 horse
power every day. sincea trip up an average
fight OF staira in half a minute involves
the expenditure OF energy roughly equal
to one-ffth OF a horsepower. This total,
could it be applied, would furnish power
for all New York's engines.
Five years OF stair climbing totalling a
rise Of more than 10000 miles and calling
forth 1000. 900 horsepower; that is the total
not Of all New York's daily vertical travel,
but simply that which is accomplished
without the aid of any labor saving de-
Woe. People have been going to and fro
upon the earth ever since the example was
ret by a certain we'll known person, but
since they quilted trees as habitations
they have been little concerned with getting
up and down,
Consequently horizontal travel has re-
ceived all sorts Of study and new appli-
anoes, while vertical travel until within q
few years has had little attention. Conse-
Quently the great majority of New York's
population plods up and down stairs In the
old way, a means of vertical travel which
corresponds TO the now despised shank's
mare method Of progress on the level.
That the solution Of the problems of
vertical travel is rapidly assuming greater
Importance cannot be doubted. The snv-
ing OF precious minutes and energy for
business men in all fields Is daily becoming
more important.
As New York grows upward so hoes
vertical travel expand. and the ompara-
tive neglect which this field has received
in the past may be chiefly attributed TO the
fact that the necessity for subways. ele-
waited lines and skyscrapers is a latter day
growth. More and more the New Yorker
ia coming To travel in three dimensions in
stead Of two. as did his forefathers. AS q
result there is springing up the new pro-
fession of elevating engineering.
That there is room for it is shown by
New York's stair climbing figures. Hori-
zontal travel has carriages, autos, trolley
cars, subways. elevated roads. steam lines.
moving sidewalks long array OF mechani-
cal devices for horizontal travel. But for
the man who wants TO get up or down there
are besides stairs. of course, just two helps.
elevators n escalators.
There Is nothing, for instance, to CORE
spond TO the auto, and If a parallel be sought
in the field Of vertical travel for the devices
Of horizontal progression it is generally not
10 be found. Are the elevator and the
t6CuldlII VIII ~ III lAlC WIN vi ItluNlIlR
New York's present daily climb OF 20.OOa
miles and OF taking care of the increase
that will come with more scraping sky
scrapers or will the airship or something of
that sort be called into play with lines of
travel on various levels and landing stages
at various floors?
Each of the two existing devices has it's
particular sphere OF usefulness. In sky
scrapers where the installation of an esca-
lator on zach floor is not desirable the ele-
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nishes the desired service. At elevated
stations. in department stores and generally
at terminal points where travel is oongested
the escalator gives far better results be-
cause OF its more rapid service.
As compared with an elevator, even one
to accommodate fifty persons. il can handle
ten times as many passengers. There is no
DELAY similar 10 that which occurs when
an elevator IS at another fioor or when its
doors are being opened or closed.
The latter point is an important one, too,
where women are concerned, since observa-
ton has proved that they take about two
seconds more or almost twice as long az
men in getting on or of an elevator. Two
seconds less occurring a hundred thousand
times or more a day mounts up into quite
a total.
These, then, are the two mechanical
means of travel in the third dimension,
Stairs, Of course, are always with US, but
that this ~antiquated means of getting up
and down is becoming more and more
unpopular is evidenced by the growing
demand for apartment houses with ele-
vators and, for example, the agitation now
going on for the installation of escalators
at the extension Of the Brooklyn Bridge
terminals.
That is the field as It is at present, and
Il would seem TO be up TO the elevating
engineer TO take care OF the problems that
arise as the New Yorker in his daily life
gets further and further away from the
ground. He may experiment with bal
looms. airships. moving ladders OF anything
else, since the two devices mentioned are
practically the only departure from the
task OF stair climbing.
The only recent experiment Of late has
been the rial- are abandonment of the
inclined plane or ramp in one railway sta
ton and proposals for ifs installation in
another. But the ramp is nothing new,
and neither the construction nor the history
of this form Of vertical travel IL such as to
make it seem probable that it will offer the
desired solution or, indeed, mark any adj
vance In the field which il serves.
IL does not move, 80 that 1t will work no
saving Of energy, and on account OF its
construction il will necessitate the ex-
penditure OF nearly two minutes, as COM
pared 20 the thirty seconds necessary to
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