The Topeka state journal., 1920-04-08

irons where scarcely a home is with
out an elevator system, some even
having separate cars for servants.
The automatic type of car, worked
by press buttons, and used in most
residences. is one of the safest known.
The electric switch prevents. the cur
rent from being established while the
doors are open When the car IS in
motion it cannot be called by another
person wishing to use it. II a passen-
ger pushes a button to go to certain
floor, and changes his mind he in
| forms the car by pressing the emerg-
| ency button, and then the button of
| the desired floor. The automatic cleo
trio elevator responds to your desires
in a way that is almost human.
| Electric elevators have taken the
place of the old hydraulic cars almost
everywhere, for passenger service.
''Old". in speaking of elevators refers
! to no date farther back than 1870.
Before that, six-story building was
a towering monstrosity too high for
| everyday use. The new invention
made possible twelve-story structures,
| were still in the air castle stage.
| This was partly because the hy-
} draulic conveyor depends on water
I pressure, usually forced by a plunger
| "a long piston under the car. This
plunger has TO be as long as the eleva-
L.
hundred foot building hole two
hundred feet deep has TO be dug to
| hold the plunger when the elevator is
down To dig one foot costs about
800, so that the plunger elevator is
anything but inexpensive In tall
structure.
When the electric elevator was in
vented, buildings began to shoot sky
ward, especially in New York, where
Ion n hn
at any price. Skyscrapers seem to
have reached their limit when the
Woolworth building-the worlds tall
est-was built in 1914. This 7S5 foot
structure has fifty-four floors. Its
elevators attain a speed Of nearly 500
feet a minute on express trips.
For some years the Washington
monument was the tallest building in
this country at sos feet. Its elevator
makes the run to the top in five min
utes, a low rate of speed being neces-
i sary because of the cosmopolitan
character of the visitors. That is, in
the Woolworth or Singer buildings
office workers demand high speed ano
pid elevator service, but all sorts oi
persons visit the monument and some
of them become nervous as they look
up the unbroken line of wall to thf
top. The slow, steady trip up tbs
monument is far more nerve-racklng
to many persons, than the one minute
run to the top of a New York sky
scraper. There is so much time II
ina gine how you would look IL you
dropped four or five hundred feet te
the ground. As 2 matter of fact thu
monument elevator is one OF the mos
reliable anywhere. Its ropes are tbs
largest in the city, and rules of safety
are carefully observed.
The newest type of elevator is thu
electric traction. A single high pow
l ~ i IL
/ vices costs as much as 100000 These
elevators are absolutely safe, but theil
cost is prohibitive in many cases. ant
they are not capable of attaining full
! efficiency in a building less thai
twenty stories high. The cars ar
capable of travelling 500 feet a min
/ ute, but this speed cannot even be ap
proa ched when stops must be mad
: every twenty feet to let passengers OIL
{ or off.
The head of fire department sait
, recently that a large percentage o
fires are caused by trash IN eieyato
, shaftways, becoming ignited. AS it i
against the law everywhere to duml
. papers or other refuse in such place
: there is no excuse for these fires. Al
, elevator inspector says that he ortel
. finds hatchways, in which roper an.
rags are piled three feet deep unit
; they are level with the floor.
Before this is cleaned out, som
l man gets into the elevator with
: cigar or cigaret, and finding Womel
e lpresent he gallantly flicks his smok
3 thru the grating. Sometimes it goe
s out More often fire is started, an
;. while most shafts are made as fire
r proof as possible by solid iron an
4 glass enclosures, still all elevate
3 shafts are smoke pipes in case OF fire
: The moral for elevator habitues
obviously that if you find yourself i
= an elevator with ladies and cigar
E you should hold your weed unobtru
E sively instead of carelessly lighting
n fire with it.