WEBVTT - PTG Classic: How Did P. T. Barnum Trick the World Into Riding Elevators? 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:12.160 Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio Guess 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:12.559 What Will? 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:13.280 What's that Mango? 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:15.480 So I heard this fact yesterday that a lot of 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.440 buildings in New York lie about how tall they are. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:20.720 The buildings are lying about how tall they are. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.680 Well, maybe it's the builders, but they exaggerate about their buildings. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.600 So you know how guys have this reputation for lying 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.200 about their height. Right of course, So in New York City, 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.600 builders will lie about how tall their buildings are to 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.519 attract a certain client tell which is weird to me, 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.519 and people just buy it. I guess they do because 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.120 the way they trick people is with the elevators. Unless 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.159 you're going to count each and every floor, the only 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.279 way you're going to interact with all the floors is 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.680 through the buttons on the elevators. Right, Yeah, some of 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.280 this tends to be innocent. Some builders skip the thirteenth 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.040 floor because they're superstitious, so you get someone talking about 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.800 like a fifteen story building when it's only fourteen stories. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.400 But other builders love the grandeur. The first example that 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.960 comes up when you google this phenomena is Trump Tower, 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:04.840 though the owner and his family supposed to live on 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.720 the sixty six through sixty eighth floor. The building is 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.400 actually ten floors shorter than that. It's only fifty eight stories. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.280 You know. I feel like I've seen this in other 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.240 places too, like when you walk past first class in 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.720 a plane and you're like, those are rows one through four, 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:20.560 and then you go back to where we're trying to 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.240 sit and it's immediately like the tenth throw. Yeah, exactly, 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.880 It's so weird. But I'm curious in terms of the buildings, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:28.959 like how do they hide the ten floors? 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.560 It's very similar. So the building has a huge, beautiful 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.720 atrium with the tall ceiling, but the elevators start counting 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.759 from floors thirty instead of twenty, which is the actual height. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.720 Trump Tower also does this where it's supposed to be 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.760 ninety floors, but if you stand at the top, it's 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.959 only seventy two stories high. It's a really common phenomena, 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.600 and the way the buildings trick you is through the elevators. 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:49.000 You know. 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.760 Elevators are an interesting topic, and I think there's a 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:53.960 lot to talk about here, from why it's so awkward 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.279 to ride an elevator with strangers to whether the closed 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.200 door button actually does anything to most importantly, why are 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.720 all elevators named otis? This has always puzzled me. So 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:28.680 we've got a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Hey 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.280 their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.359 Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.600 mangesh hot ticketter and on the other side of that 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.840 soundproof glass dressed like a lift operator from the nineteen fifties, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.400 and he's adjusting his desk chair up and down. I mean, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.680 it's really impressive. He's actually hinted that he was looking 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.720 forward to this and he has really lived up to 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:49.240 the challenge. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:49.400 Here. 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.000 That's our good pal and producer. Loll lull. You are 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.320 looking good. So Mango, what is our first stop on 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:57.320 this elevator tour? 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.840 So, actually, before we kick off, I've got a little 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.920 bit house key thing to tie up. In our last 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.680 episode on Nine Comic Book Heroes, we talked about this 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.480 terrible character, the red Bee and his secret weapon, this 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.520 ridiculous train bee named Michael who you know, if you'll remember, 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.919 he'd keep him in his belt and unleash him on villains. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.320 But one of our listeners on Twitter, Charles Porr, pointed 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:20.120 out that male bees don't sting. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.040 That's a very good point. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.160 Yeah, yeah, it only makes Michael seem more useless. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:27.840 It's true. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:29.959 That just makes it that much better though. So thank 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.360 you so much, Charles. If you DM me your address, 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.040 I'll send you a small package of honey as a 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.640 thank you. But back to elevators, and I want to 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.160 go back to a time when elevators were a little 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:40.240 more dangerous. 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.000 Yeah, so, I know modern elevators started to take shape. 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:44.520 I guess it was, you know, as early as the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.160 eighteen fifties. But were they around long before that? Like 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.320 when exactly was the first elevator made? So it kind 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.480 of depends on your definition. But if you take just 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.480 the basic concepts of an elevator, like a machine that 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.320 can lift things vertically, then you're probably talking about a 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.240 few thousand years ago. For instance, it's possible that the 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.960 Egyptians used vertical lifts to build their pyramids, but that's 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.440 still speculation. Like the first recorded use of a vertical 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.560 lift that comes from the third century BCE, and this 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.839 is when the mathematician Archimedes built a platform that could 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.719 be hoisted up and down using ropes and pulleys. Now, 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.279 these early lifts obviously didn't run on electricity. Instead, they 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.679 were powered by people, animals, in some cases even water. 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.880 They also weren't used as people movers. Instead, the hoists 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.120 were mostly used to lift building materials or water jugs, 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.279 and it wasn't until a few centuries later that primitive 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.640 elevators were finally used to transport living creatures. This was 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.000 in the first century CE, when Roman gladiators and wild 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.520 animals would ride the lifts from the lower levels up 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.520 to the floor of the coliseum. Right, So even then, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.960 most people probably wouldn't have trusted their lives to an elevator, 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.320 I would assume at least at that point. And they 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.719 were considered safe enough though for enslaved combatants and lions 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.200 or whatever. But the average citizen would have probably chosen 0:04:58.240 --> 0:04:59.040 the stairs. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.599 Still, definitely, and there was just still too much room 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.720 for error when you had, you know, people or donkeys 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.560 pulling the ropes. People didn't really start using elevators by 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.320 choice until more reliable systems were developed. For instance, in 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.000 seventeen forty three, King Louis the fifteenth had one of 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.120 the earliest passenger elevators installed in the palace at Versailles. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.159 He was a ladies man and the private elevator was 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.800 an easy way for his mistress to visit him in secret, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.880 and he referred to it as a flying chair. Basically, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:27.359 all you had to do to operate it was to 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.640 pull a cord connected to a pulley system and from 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.720 their gravity and a series of counterweights would do the rest. 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:34.440 That's a pretty clever I guess. 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.360 Yeah. And in the early eighteen hundred, steam actually gets incorporated, 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.160 and this ends up being super helpful because steam powered 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.760 lifts were able to move much heavier loads. You're thinking 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.200 about things like coal or lumber and steel, and suddenly 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.320 this could all be raised hundreds of feet in a 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.680 matter of seconds. This new capacity led to major booms 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.680 and construction and mining, and it's actually a big part 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.719 of what made the Industrial Revolution so transformative. Steam powered 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.880 elevator still had one major flaw. They were really dangerous, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.039 like super dangerous, and if a rope snapped, the lift 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.039 would just plummet, and unfortunately, that happened pretty often all 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.240 through the first half of the nineteenth century. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.760 Right And it's around that halfway point that an entrepreneur 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.400 and inventor named elisha Otis enters the picture. We mentioned 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.960 that name earlier, and he got into the elevator game 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.120 in eighteen fifty two while working on a project for 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.279 a company that made bedframes. So the client needed a 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.400 way to move heavy manufacturing equipment to the second floor 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.760 of its factory. It was only one problem, though, and 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:36.800 that was that the equipment they were moving was so 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.920 heavy that the lifting cables couldn't bear the weight for 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.719 all that long. So there was this constant risk that 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.200 the cables were going to snap, and if that happened, 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.680 there would be nothing to stop the elevator from plunging 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.200 straight to the ground floor. So Otis's solution to the 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.880 problem was to develop the world's first safety device for elevators. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.280 It was basically like a brake system that functioned as 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.040 a fail safe for the lift. So if the cable 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.719 should break, the loss of tension would trigger the release 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.400 of these levers on either side of the elevator car, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.200 and then these levers would lock and do these series 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.080 of grooves that were along the vertical rails of the elevator, 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.320 and that would sort of arrest the fall and lock 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:16.160 the car in place. 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.520 So it's pretty innovative, that's pretty amazing. So I just 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:19.920 want to make sure I have this straight. Like, the 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.480 vertical rails were already part of the elevator design, right, Like, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.120 they just didn't have that like locking system built into 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:27.440 them until Otis came along. 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.520 Yeah, that's right. I mean all of the elevators of 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.480 the era were braced on either side by these vertical 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:34.880 rails that help keep the car steady as it was 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.920 going up or down. And so those rails were completely smooth, though, 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.680 so if a cable broke, the car would just slide 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.040 right down the rails in free fall, which would obviously 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.640 be dangerous and terrifying. And so Otis's breakthrough was to 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.640 carve grooves into the rails and create kind of a 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.560 saw toothed ratchet system that would act as these brakes. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.679 Industrial companies recognize the merits of the new braking system 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.400 right away, and Otis quickly set to work on filing 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.400 orders for freight elevators. But the public was still unconvinced, 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.880 understandably because it is such a different invention and everything, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.080 but most people viewed elevators as these death traps, and 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.240 they were unlikely to be swayed from this opinion by 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.520 these confusing diagrams. They were singing and all these technical explanations. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.120 So in order to really trust such a system, people 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.800 would need to see it for themselves. And so at 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.680 the World's Fair in eighteen fifty four, Elishah Otis allowed 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:32.040 them to do just that. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.880 So you're saying that, like fairgoers were actually willing to 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.120 get into these elevators and test the brake systems. 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.520 No, still not at this point. But Otis thought about that, 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.920 I mean, he anticipated that, and so he arranged a 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.480 stunt that would instead put only one person's life on 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.240 the line, and that, of course, was his own. And 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.880 so here's what happened. You're at the Crystal Palace exposition Hall, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:58.400 and Otis constructed this fifty foot wooden elevator. Then, with 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.720 some help from none other than Pace Barnum himself, Otis 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.400 gathered this crowd and promised them this death defying stunt 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.760 unlike any they had ever seen. So the crowd is, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.920 you know, hyped up in everything, and Otis then dramatically 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.719 rides the elevator to the very top, where he then 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.840 ordered an axe wielding assistant to cut the rope that 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:22.440 held up the elevator. The onlookers were stunned and sort 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.040 of braced themselves for this tragic scene, but thankfully it 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.760 never came. And that's because, you know, of course, to 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.640 their surprise and great relief, the platform dropped just a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.360 few inches and then came to a complete stop. The 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.680 crowd was blown away by this, but they were also 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.760 skeptical of how reliable the system really was, and you know, 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.839 they thought, maybe Otis just got insanely lucky, and there 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.720 was no guarantee that the brakes would work a second time. 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.680 So Otis performed the stunt again and again and again. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.880 Every hour of the day that the fair was open. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.800 He performed this stunt, and in this way, little by little, 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.920 one crowd at a time, Otis won over the public 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.240 and convinced them that elevators were at long last safe 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:05.920 to ride. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.800 That is such an amazing stunt, Like it's such an 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.400 amazing pr thing that all you're basically doing is riding 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:12.040 an elevator. 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:14.559 Pretty amazing. 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.200 But you know, I'm guessing this was a turning point 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.800 for Otis. Like I read that the first passenger elevator 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.200 to use his brake system was installed in New York 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.080 in eighteen fifty seven, so it was still about three 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.240 years after the fair, But then the floodgates really open, 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.199 and within sixteen years, more than two thousand passenger elevators 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:34.920 were operating all across the country. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.680 Yeah, there was definitely a snowball effect to all of this. 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.640 And you know, sadly Otis actually didn't live long enough 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.480 to see just how widely embraced his invention became. He 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.920 passed away in eighteen sixty one, just a few years 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.160 after his first elevator was installed in New York. But 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.920 his sons did carry on the family business along with others, 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.360 and they worked to make improvements on that original design, 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.679 including the switch to hydraulic power and eventually, of course, 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.079 to electricity. Now, all of this innovation helps secure the 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.200 elevator's place as one of the most highly traffic transport 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.040 systems in the world. And that's not an exaggeration. According 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.840 to the La Times, the world's elevators now move the 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:20.199 equivalent of the Earth's population every seventy two hours. Wow. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.199 If you think about that, every three days, over seven 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.680 and a half billion people take a ride on an elevator. 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.040 That is not something I'd even comprehended. That's pretty remarkable. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.640 Yeah, it's really crazy and It's especially true of Otis elevators, 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.160 which are still going strong today. For example, the elevators 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.760 in the Eiffel Tower Otis elevators. So are the ones 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.560 in the Empire, State Building, the White House, the Vatican, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.079 the Kremlin. I mean, the list goes on and on, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.679 and the company is now one of the two largest 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.840 elevator manufacturers in the world. And that's why if you 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.000 step into an elevator today, the chances are you will 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.319 find that Otis name inscribed on the walls. 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.520 There, which makes a lot more sense than all the 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.640 elevator in the world being nicknamed Otis. But I think 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.959 we should talk some more about the rapid growth phase 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.520 that elevators went through near the turn of the twentieth century. 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.120 You actually mentioned that there were a couple thousands spread 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.880 across the country by the early eighteen seventies, but the 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.080 majority of those were still being used in industrial settings, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.880 and you'd find the safety elevators in coal mines or 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.560 construction sites, but it was still pretty rare to see 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.120 one in an office building or apartment complex. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.280 Yeah, the average person didn't come into contact with elevators 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.560 all that often, and that finally starts to change in 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.160 the eighteen seventies though, as business owners begin adding elevators 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.640 to their office buildings, and that's really what launched the 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.880 invention into its next phase, where you start to see 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.760 all the architectural and cultural impacts that elevators have had. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.280 Yeah, I mean, it's wild to think about how different 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.920 the cities we know would look if it weren't for elevators, 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.960 Like no skyscrapers, high rise apartments, like all the buildings 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:58.560 would just be a few stories tall. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.760 Yeah, it's funny when you look back and realized that 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.600 higher floors would you know, they used to be the 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.040 least desirable spaces in a building. Like today we connect 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.760 higher floors with a sense of luxury. They're more private, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.360 farther removed from the noise of the streets, you know, 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.320 not to mention those bird's eye view of the skyline. 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.960 But before elevators made them more accessible, those top floors 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.240 were seen as inconvenient, like In fact, they were typically 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.360 set aside for either low rent tenants or like the 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.320 in house janitor. So how many stairs you had to 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.960 climb to get to your apartment was really kind of 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.880 a status signifier, like the fewer obviously the. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.000 Better, exactly, and so when elevators came along, not only 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.760 did those higher floors get much more appealing and much 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.520 more valuable, they also got much higher. So thanks to 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.720 the advent of steel frame construction, and of course thanks 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.160 to elevators, buildings could suddenly be built much taller than before. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.320 This basically meant that anyone who owned a building no 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.040 longer needed to fight for new land to develop on, 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.959 like that's something that's always in short supply in cities. Instead, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.160 they could simply build upwards new offices, hotel rooms, retail 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.280 space like there's nothing but air above. So in a way, 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.280 elevators literally shape the cities we know today. I actually 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.520 found this great quote from this guy named Patrick Karajat, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.079 and he's the founder of the Elevator Museum in New York. 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.320 And according to him, quote, if we didn't have elevators, 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.400 we would have a megalopolis, one continuous city stretching from 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.960 Philadelphia to Boston, because everything would be five or six 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:28.600 stories tall. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.720 Yeah, it's interesting to think about it as this choice 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:35.239 between a sprawling horizontal city or this more densely clustered, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.760 vertical one, And it reminds me of this cool Boston 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.200 Globe article that talked about a kind of invisible war 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.280 between elevators and cars that's been going on for the 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.800 past century or so. So the idea is that you 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.240 have these two new technologies that were basically pushing us 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.680 in two different directions. On the one side, you had cars, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.920 which allowed people to travel horizontally, and the other you 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.240 had elevators, which of course moved people vertically. And city 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.400 planners had to choose which of these new technologies they 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.000 were going to get behind, which you know, which one 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.360 they were going to focus on developing their cities around. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.720 And if you looked up in an American city during 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.920 the last one hundred years, it's pretty obvious you know 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:14.680 which one they. 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.880 Picked, definitely. But it's not like cars were left by 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.080 the wayside or anything like. Elevators may have won the 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.320 battle to shape cities, but cars are still the you know, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.920 transportation of choice in suburbs where the sprawl is much 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:26.800 less of an issue. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.720 Yeah, I guess in the end, it's sort of been 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.520 a draw in that sense between those two. But all right, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.320 so we've seen how elevators have evolved over the years, 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.000 and I feel like we should check out a few 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.960 things about them that have actually stayed the same. But 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:40.960 before we get to that, let's take a quick break. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.560 You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:01.320 the eccentricities of elevator etiquette. We talked about the elevator's 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.640 effect on our architecture and daily routines. Now let's talk 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.000 about how elevators affected the people who rode them, Because 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:11.720 when you think about it, passenger elevators really created a 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.920 new kind of social situation, like one that's strangely intimate 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.760 yet impersonal at the same time. It's always a little 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:20.800 bit weird to be in an elevator full of people, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.080 or even more weird to be with one person. But 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.600 you know, this new dynamic raised all kinds of questions 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.840 about what was proper behavior when riding an elevator. The 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.000 one hot debate, for example, was whether a man should 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.000 remove his hat while riding in an elevator with a woman. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.120 You know, I'm sure you think about this all the 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.520 time and really worry about like should he take his 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.520 hat off as he would in a restaurant or leave 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.200 it on as he would you know, on a train 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:46.880 or a bus. I mean, it's a lot to think. 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.840 About I don't think I even realized you're supposed to 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:49.560 leave your hat. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.040 On a bus, but yeah, leave it on. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.040 But it's interesting because restaurants and buses are both examples 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.240 of public spaces, right, So for elevators, it was really 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.960 more about whether they were a mode of transportation or 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:04.960 just another room in a building, albeit a moving room. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.120 So it's kind of a tough call because both descriptions 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:09.560 are technically a fit for that. 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.280 Yeah, it's true, and I think that was really what 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.200 through people, Like the elevator was a mode of transportation 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.880 inside a building, So which set of rules do you follow? Now? 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.520 Unlike riding a bus, riding an elevator brought unclear expectations 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.760 for social interaction, Like even if you don't know the 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.040 other passengers, you know that they live or work in 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.240 the same building as you, and so there's this sense 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.040 that you should at least acknowledge that in some way, 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.879 whether by nodding or smiling or making small talk or whatever. 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.080 Right, But we never want to be the person to 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.000 make that call, right, Like everyone wants to wait for 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.120 the other person to make the first move in those situation. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.119 So it always creates this I don't know like anxiety 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:49.159 or tension or something. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.000 No, I don't know. I usually just go ahead and 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.280 get in and get everybody a hug, and just I 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.359 get that out of the way exactly. And it feels like, now, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.919 more than one hundred and fifty years after their invention, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.439 we still haven't gotten over those feelings of discomfort. It's like, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.920 despite all the advances in elevator design, the one thing 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.639 we can't seem to resolve is this inherent awkwardness of 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:13.919 taking this short ride with other strangers. 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.760 So I am curious if you know what causes that, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:19.840 like what makes it feel so awkward? 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.040 Yeah, I was definitely curious about this. This was actually 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.280 one of the first things we were looking into this week, 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.159 and it turns out there are a few reasons. So 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.440 one deals with something that international tourists here a lot, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.040 which is that we Americans love our personal space. So 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.760 typically we like to keep at least an arm's length 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.240 of distance between us and other people, and the elevator 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.360 is one of the rare places where that's not always possible, 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.800 and so that's, you know, what brings on some of 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.359 that awkwardness. Now, the other thing that was is a 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.720 bit more universal and that's that most of us are 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.840 at least a little bit anxious of being trapped in 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.520 a steel box, which may sound obvious, and not only 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.120 that you're dangling from the roof by this cable. And 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:04.919 that's despite the fact that elevators are actually super safe. 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.399 In fact, they are one of the safest ways to 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.640 travel period. So for example, about nineteen hundred people die 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.040 taking the stairs each year, which is just a really 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.120 bizarre fact, but according to Consumer Watch, they were only 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.639 about twenty seven elevator related deaths per year worldwide. Now, 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:24.639 I gonna be honest, I wouldn't even known it was 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.320 that much. And considering that elevators make roughly eighteen billion 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.600 trips each year according to the La Times, that works 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.960 out to an exceptionally low fatality rate. It's about a 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.280 point zero zero zero zero zero zero one five percent 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.399 per trip. So you know, the awkwardness you feel in 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.720 an elevator is very real, but the sense of danger 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:48.960 not so much. 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.960 Well, I mean that definitely tracks with what I learned 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.000 this week about the origin of elevator music. So I'd 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.359 always assume that the music was there to calm people's 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.320 nerves and make them less worried about going, you know, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.920 something going wrong. But according to elevator historians, of which 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.639 there are actually a great many, I found out this week, 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.359 elevator music was really invented to help alleviate boredom and 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:12.919