Evening star., 1936-05-11
.ELEvAT0RPR0BE
AGAIN ASKED IN
HOUSE BY SCOTT
Inspectors Claim of ''Semi.
Automatic" Type in
Tragedy Scored.
COMMITTEE GIVEN
TERM INTERPRETATION
Accident Fatal to Harvey Crowell,
13, Recalled by Contro.
versy's Revival.
Renewal of his demand for q con-

Renewal OF MS demand Tor q con-
gressional investigation Of the District
building inspectors Office was made to-
day by Representative Scott Of Cali
fornia on receipt Of an Interpretation
of the term automatic elevator" from
the National Elevator Code Subcom-
mittee.
Scott's request for an investigation,
now before the House Rules Commit
tee, was made after District building
inspectors, investigating the death OF
13-year-old Harvey Crowell in the ele-
vator of a Georgia avenue apartment
house last March 10, filed q report
claiming the installation conformed
with District regulations. although the
sill on the landing side of the hatch
way door was wider than allowed on
full automatic control elevators.
I'm attempting to justify themselves,
the inspectors claimed the elevator IN
the Georgia avenue apartment is not
full automatic nor automatic but
semi-automatic,' and that therefore
the 4-inch landing sill wss in accord
ance with District code regulations"
Scott explained.
Claims Held False.
1.-THE Interpretation have received,
which the inspectors could have Sc
cured any time for the asking, proves
conclusively that there is no such
thing as a semi automatic elevator.
and that the inspectors claim the
method of operating the elevator doors
determines its classification is abSo-
lutely false" he asserted.
The District inspectors claim that
the Georgia avenue elevator was semi
automatic" was based on the fact that,
while the elevator car door operated
automatically, the landing door had to
be opened by hand.
After discussing the question with
several technical experts on elevators as
well as practical elevator constructors,
was convinced the District inspectors
were attempting to befog the issue by
| claiming the elevator in which Harvey
Crowell was killed was semi-automatic.'
To be sure, however, put the question
to the subcommittee on research,
recommendations and interpretations
of the sectional committee for the
elevator safety code.
I'm response to my inquiry as to
whether there Is such a thing as a
semi-automatic elevator, the answer
was the American Standards Asso-
citation code does not define, nor does
it mention in any of its rules, a semi
automatic elevator. So far as the
members of the committee know, no
State or municipal code refers to a
semi-automatic elevator
Method of Operation.
'The District inspectors claimed
the manual operation of the hail.
way door made the elevator semi
automatic but on that question the
subcommittee stated, the method of
operation or control Of the elevator
Is the determining factor. The type
of door operation does not enter into
the elevator classification
"The subcommittee report amplified
this by explaining that If the elevator
can be started and will continue to a
given landing on the momentary press
ing Of any landing or car button, the
elevator is an automatic-operation ell
evator irrespective Of the method of
operating hoistway and car doors
THAT description fits the Georgia
avenue apartment elevator exactly, and
the entire subcommittee was unan-
imous in all of the interpretations.
The District inspectors could have had
the same information free of charge
II they had asked for it, as did.
Il believe that proves my conten-
ton that the District inspectors in
vestigation was merely an effort to
save somebody's job. If they still claim
there is such a thing as semi-auto-
matte elevator despite the accepted
opinion and practice of the other cities
throughout the country, it's question
| of they're all out of step but Jim"