The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-09
THE NEW WORKERS CLIMB
 85,OOO,OOO STAIRS DAILY
More Climbing Metropolis Than in Swtzer1and-City Yer tical Travel by Stairs Takes Five Years Every
 Day&Cimb is More Than 10000 Miles.

vated lines and skyscrapers is a latter day growth. More and more the New Yorker is coming to travel in three dl- mansions instead of two, as did his fore fathers. As a result there Is springing up the new profession of vertical or ele- vating engineering.
 That there Is room for 1t is shown by New YorlS's stair climbing figures. Hor- izontal travel has carriages, autos, troll ley cars subways, elevated roads, steam lines, moving sidewalks-a long array of mechanical devices for horizontal travel. But for the man who wants to get up or down there are besides stairs, of course, just two-e1evators and escalators. There is nothing, for instance to correspond to the auto, and If a parallel be sought in the field of vertical travel for the de- vices of horizontal progression 1t is gen orally not to be found. Are the elevator and the escalator going to do the work of reducing New Yorks present daily climb of 2000Q miles and of taking care of the increase that will come with more scraping skyscrapers, or will the air ship 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 for vertical travel has its particular sphere of usefulness In skyscrapers where the installation of an escalator on each floor is not desirable the elevator, or rather battery of elevators, furnishes the de- sired service. At elevated stations in department stores, and generally at ter minal points where travel Is congested, the escalator gives Better results because of it's more rapid service. As compared with an elevator, even one large enough to accommodate 50 persons, 1t can han dle ten times as many passengers per hour, or conversely handle the same number ten times as rapidly. There Is no delay similar to that which occurs when an elevator is at another floor or when it's doors are being opened or closed. The latter point is an important one. too, where women are concerned, since observation has proved that they take about two seconds more or almost twice as long as man in getting on or off an elevator. Two seconds less occurring 100000 times 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 emans of getting up and down is becoming more and more unpopular Is evidenced by the growing demand for apartment houses and even single dwellings with elevators.
 That is the field as it is at present, and it would seer Je up to the elevating engineer to take care of the problems that arise as the New Yorker in his daily life gets farther and farther away from the ground. He may experiment with balloons, airships, moving ladders, or anything else, since the two devices men, tioned are practically the only departure from the task of stair climbing.
 Evidently the future will demand some- thing entirely new in the line of vertical travel While the present system of ele- vators may be all right for lowly 20 story buildings, it remains to be seen what can be done in those of 60 stories, where the length of the trip promises to re- quire a schedule such as is employed by passenger trains. Indeed in some of the stations In this city the trains during rush hours leave more frequently than will the elevators in the new skyscrap- CTS A city which spends five years of time and a million horse power every day in its vertical travel by stair af- fords such field for economy of time and energy as to make 1t attractive to inventors. New York half century hence, with a predicted population of 5O,0O0,0O0, will hardly be willing or able to spend 50 years and 10OO0,OO0 horse power every day in stair climbing with time and energy so valuable. At that rate in the year 1860 New Workers would spend 175OO years annually in getting up and down stairs! Figuring the value of every ones time as worth only 20 cents an hour for 300 eight-hour days a year. that would mean an annual loss of near ly $10,00O,0OO.
 Just how the new era of vertical travel is to be accomplished is difficult to tell. but with buildings growing higher and the streets more crowded, necesstating the removal above or below them of the traction lines, 1t is certain that it must come. The first advances will doubtIes be by means of such equipment as will save time at the expense of energy or wee versa, working finally into some so- luton which will minimize both