WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets a Lift 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:15.800 stuff works dot com. Hey everyone, then, welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.840 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren. This is a podcast. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.560 It's gonna have a lot of ups and down because 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.680 we're going to talk about how elevators work. Yep, yes, 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.080 we are so, um you know elevators. Most of us 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.960 are pretty familiar with these things. Anyone who lives in 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.440 any place has buildings that are for stories, are higher 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.600 probably is very familiar with them. Really, humanity has been 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.279 pretty pretty familiar with these or at least some kind 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.760 of hoisting device for recorded history. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.680 because it turns out that we need to get stuff 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.880 to places where that stuff isn't and sometimes that means 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.960 lifting stuff up high places or up to high places 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.080 and having someone carry it there is not always the 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.320 most convenient method, right, So, so hoisting device ice has 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.440 been around for ages. There plenty of examples of various 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.640 Pulley systems. In fact, Archimedes, which are longtime listeners, will 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.000 know that that tech Stuff has done a podcast about 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:16.240 our comedies. Our comedies was coming up with the first 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.559 Winch and Pulley system, and by that I mean the winch, 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.760 as in something that you wind the cable around and 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.000 turned to to pull it up. Not not like a 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:29.880 bar far winch. Different, not a bunch of ladies carrying 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.800 tankards and holding onto a rope and saying heave that 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:38.160 would that would be amusing, but that's not how it works, um. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.280 Roman architect of Trivious reported that he that our commedies 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.520 had built one of these systems around two d and 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.000 thirty six b C. So that's the kind of time 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.160 frame that we're looking at. And and there's definite evidence 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.960 of Roman pulley elevators, you know, crude hoisting. I don't 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.440 want to say elevators because it's not really the right terminology. Sure, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.480 but a platform that can be hoisted up through a 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.640 pulley system. Yes, we we're definitely used in the Colosseum 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.920 to move gladiators and various animals that were trying to 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.480 kill them. Not to mention to mention the idea of 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.280 actually just constructing some of those massive stone structures that 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.079 you've seen. If you've if you've ever toured around Europe 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.800 like places like Italy and you've seen these large buildings, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.360 you know that they're scaffolding and hoists and things of 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.680 that nature that we're used to to lift stuff, so cranes, 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:27.840 things like that. Well, all this is related to the 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.640 idea of elevators as far as an elevator that was 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.960 used to like move people up and down floors. Uh, 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.480 A predecessor for that still not really a true elevator, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.519 but a processor dates all the way back to seventy 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.520 three a d in this case, and was called the 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:50.240 flying chair. And it was this was this was King Louis, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:56.880 was right, Louis, You know stairs were for fools, said Louis. 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.639 Supposedly this particular, this, this flying chair, this elevator was 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:05.440 connecting his his his apartments to his mistress's apartments directly 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.720 right and uh. And it was mounted on the outside 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.200 of his palace wall. So this was not some interior elevator. Rather, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:13.600 it was a chair he would sit in. He would 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.399 go out to his balcony and say, you know, I'm 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.960 want to pay a little visit to my Saturday night thing. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.359 And he jumped into the flying chair, although I guess 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.600 he'd probably more very gently settle himself into the flying 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.680 chair and signal for the servants to move the chair 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.400 so that it would make the trip to the the 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:41.040 courtesan's room. And um, anyway, in this case, the the cables, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.480 all the stuff that would actually made the flying chair 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:49.120 rise and descend were hidden by a chimney. So this 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.240 is a chimney that wasn't designed to funnel smoke. It 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.720 was just al the king, yes sort of, it was 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.080 really it was really just to kind of house all 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.480 the ropes and police. And there are counterweights as well 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.160 to help balance this out. We'll explain why counterweights are 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.120 important later on the podcast. Counterweights or something that we 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.440 find in modern day elevators. But the they also had 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.119 servants in those chimneys that were that was their job 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.800 to manually move the roop to so that the king 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:23.320 could get to his appointment. And uh, yeah, that that 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:27.400 was a very early kind of example. But obviously not 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.039 all of us have palaces to slap elevators on the 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.080 outside of, right, It wouldn't be until until the eighteen 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.960 hundreds that that further adventures and um, more public hoisting devices, 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.800 right and and and what really made this necessary in 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.880 a way, Well, first of all, we had a lot 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.200 of improvements. This is the industrial revolution that we're getting into, 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.640 and uh, Some of those improvements included ways of producing 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.159 stronger steel and iron, which meant that we had the 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.920 potential to build very very tall buildings, which we could 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.839 not do before. The materials we would use would would 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.599 crack under the intense pressures the compression that they would 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.360 go under if you were to try and keep building upwards. Right, 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:11.360 because previous to having steel skeletal structures inside buildings, they 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.160 were all masonry frames, which means meant that they required 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.760 thicker and thicker walls the taller that the building got. 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.800 Um So you know, it's it's if you had something 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.320 a grand total of something like seventeen stories on the 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.520 ground floor, the walls would have to be six ft thick. Yeah, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.800 and you know that's not it's not really sustainable. And 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.400 in a large, large city population area, which was also happening, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.159 there were a lot more people moving to cities and 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.159 land was becoming much more expensive throughout the course of 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.840 the centuries, exactly. Yeah, you get you get these dense 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.480 urban areas, and so you have two choices. Really, you 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.400 can sprawl, which is something we're very good at here 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:51.279 in Atlanta, or you could build upward and then have 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.839 people living in flats essentially, and uh and working in 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.760 offices that were in high rises. And it was it 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.920 was the the ads is in steel and iron production 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.039 that would allow this to happen. But you still have 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.200 a problem. How do you get up and down from 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.360 the floor you live or work on down to ground 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.200 floor because after a few floors that becomes laborious after 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.000 after you know, fifteen twenty floors. What's the quote from 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.119 Ghostbusters like, let me know when we get to fifty, 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.239 I think I'm gonna throw out something like that. Something 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.520 like that. Yeah, So one of the things that people 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.000 were wanting to to explore was this idea of elevators, 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.120 something that had a mechanical element that could lift a 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.480 platform or lower a platform that people could safely people 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.760 and stuff not just people but stuff as well could 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.960 safely travel in that would get them to wherever they 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.320 needed to go within the building. Um vertically, that is, 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.320 we're not talking about woncovadors. I joked with Lauren before 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.159 we decided to actually do this podcast that we should 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.600 cover woncovaders, But of course those are magical, so they 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.080 don't really count in text stuff. Sometimes in the eighteen twenties, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.039 Paintern and architect for the names of Thomas Horner and 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.800 Decimus Burton, and I kind of just wanted to make 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.720 this note because Decimus it's such a great name. Come 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.960 back anyway. They collaborated on what was called an Ascending 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.679 Room in London, which which hoisted tourists thirty seven meters high. 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.920 Thirty seven meters that's pretty high. It's not too bad. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.240 That's that's that's a that's a good. That's a good. Yeah, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.960 you're talking like nine floors. That's that's significant for for 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:29.480 the eighteen twenties um to view the London skyline nice. 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.600 And then by eighteen thirty five in Great Britain they 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.160 were already starting to use elevators that had belt driven sheaves. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.880 No One a sheave is is it's a special type 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.160 of pulley. It's a it's a pulley that has that 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.200 has grooves on the circumference yea, so it allows it 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.120 to grip onto the rope or cable so that it 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:53.040 can use traction to to actually move that rope or cable. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:57.560 You turn, you you move the elevator by turning the sheave, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.880 which then pulls the cables as opposed to you know, 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.560 if you think of a traditional pulley, Usually there's a 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.800 weight on one side and then you're holding the rope 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:07.240 on the other and when you pull down the rope, 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.679 the weight goes up because the pulley rolls and allows 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.360 the rope to move. Right. In this case, you've got 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.960 a pulley system that's actually gripping that rope. So when 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.680 you turn the pulley, it moves the rope itself. It 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.760 does some of the work for you. Yeah. Yeah, that's 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.120 the important part, because otherwise you'd have to always have 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.600 some sort of external motor that was holding onto the case, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.320 using a lot of energy to to hold that exactly right. 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.960 So so they had started doing that in eighteen thirty five, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.880 and they also used counterweights. The counterweights helped provide the 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.200 friction that traction necessary for the sheave to grip onto 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.280 the cable and also made it easier for the elevator 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.240 to move up and down. And again we'll explain more 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.439 about that in a little bit um, but then moving ahead. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.000 So this is still the very earliest days of elevators. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.640 By eight the eighteen fifties they started to see steam 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:03.559 and hydraulic elevators, but they generally weren't used for passengers 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.040 because there was always the potential that the elevator could fail, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.720 and there weren't any safety measures really in place that 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.720 could prevent an elevator from just plunging after a failure. 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.000 But that was coming up very soon. Yeah, by eighteen 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:23.280 fifty two, in fact, when the name in elevators, UH 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.520 created an innovation that would allow passengers safe elevators to 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.280 become a thing, and this was the safety break right, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:36.800 invented by Elisha Graves Otis. So the Otis elevator. If 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.599 you've ever been in an elevator, there's especially in the 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.320 United States, there's a really really good chance you saw 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.440 the name Otis on the elevator somewhere. It's not to 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.000 say that that's the only company that makes elevators, but 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.559 it's it's a it is a big one and probably 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.880 the best known name, at least in the United States now. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.480 In eighteen fifty two, that's when Otis invented the safety 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.840 break UH. And it was technically a latch, a safety 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.760 latch that would allow the elevator to remain in position 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.360 if the lift system failed. So, in other words, if 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.200 the cable that was holding the elevator snapped. Uh, this 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.240 safety latch would ratchet in on racks on the side 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.120 of the elevator shaft, inside the shaft right into ah. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.959 you had like the spring loaded essentially a spring loaded 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:28.120 uh latch, and once the the support system would break, 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.360 it would spring out and catch on one of these 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.960 racks and the elevator would stop falling. And uh. He 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.520 he was actually designing this, not for an elevator for people. 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.880 He was working for a company. It was a betting factory, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.240 and the betting factory it needed to find a way 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.200 of lifting equipment safely up into the factory floors. And 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.800 so he came up with this idea and then realized, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.120 wait a minute, this this is great for all elevators. Yeah, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.359 this could work for well beyond just this one application. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.960 And so, uh, specifically, the little um bolts that it used, 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.520 they're they're called Poll's p a w l s. That's 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.320 technically any sort of sliding bolt that's designed to fit 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:15.880 into something into notches usually and uh, and at first 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.400 he was he decided that he was going to go 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.240 into the elevator business pretty early on. By eighteen fifty three, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.920 he started a company that would eventually become the Otis 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:30.120 Elevator Company. Uh. And he sold a grand total of 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.719 three whole elevators in the United States, and each one 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.520 he sold for about three hundred bucks, which at the 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.280 time wasn't bad. But but but three of them, Yeah, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.240 it's less than promising. However, that that is why the 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.359 next year, in eighteen fifty four, he decided to demonstrate 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.480 this technology publicly at the World's Fair. Yeah. In fact, 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.280 that was that was his brilliant idea. He said, you know, 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:59.120 I made three sales and then nothing like the Keep 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.480 in mind this is still early early days for tall 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.559 buildings too, so there there wasn't yet a huge demand 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:10.079 for elevators. And so he was kind of I hate 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.160 to use this phrase, but I'm going to now anyway, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:17.040 he was getting in on the ground floor. And so yeah, 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.760 he decided he'd go to the World's Fair at the 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.280 Crystal Palace Exposition Center in New York City and publicly 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.280 demonstrate how his safety measure would keep elevators safe even 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.280 in the case of a catastrophic failure. And I read 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.960 an account of this and it was pretty interesting. He 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:39.920 had set up a little uh a demonstration elevator shaft, uh, 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.000 and it was really just the side walls to the 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.280 shaft what would be on the sides of the elevator shaft. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.600 There's no front, no back, so it gave a clear view, 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.560 all right. He had the platform which served as what 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.320 would be a full elevator, but there were no walls 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.959 to the elevator either. It's just a flat stage really, 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.000 And then there was a rope that hoisted the stage 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.600 up to the top of the as far up on 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.400 the shaft as it could go without falling off the 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.400 guide rails. And then he got everyone's attention and cut 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.240 the rope. The shaft fell about a foot or so 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.000 and then caught onto the ratchet ratcheted notches that were 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:22.000 on the sides of the shaft, and the elevator was sturdy. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.560 It stayed there and and he proved that it worked. 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.880 And he did this demonstration multiple times. It wasn't just 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.559 the one time, but um that ended up being an 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:36.160 incredibly effective demonstration. People began to see that there was 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.680 promise in this that uh, that the safety measures would 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.199 be effective, and so they started to really think about 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.959 using elevators to help make high rises a possibility to 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.400 keep in mind if this had not worked, If if 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.080 he had not done this, the development of the high 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.640 rise type city would have been held off for how 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.000 many years I'm sure we would be there by now. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.160 One else would have come up with the idea. Yeah, 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.680 but just imagine how different our cities would look because 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.760 buildings that were built early in that phase would not 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:09.560 have been built. They would have been put off, which 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.880 means that you'd have a totally different kind of architectural 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.080 style in place by the time that they were being built. 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.600 So do you think about it. The elevator is why 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.680 some of our most famous cities look the way they do. 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.200 It's kind of cool to think of it that way. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.800 It's it's all. It's all. Yeah. The conflagration of of 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.080 that and property values and steel frames, yeah yeah. The 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.360 fact that all these things were working together at the 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.120 same time. It was just very fortuitous, especially for otis Uh. 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.360 In eighteen fifty seven, he then installed the first passenger 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.080 safe elevator in a New York department store called and 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.480 I'm no, I'm gonna get this one messed up? E 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.000 V how what and company? This? This was a five 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.960 story department store YEP and the elevator could rise at 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.520 the mercurial speed of forty per minute. Now keep in 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:01.320 mind in general ten feet that's about on story, so 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.600 that means it could go at four floors in one minute. 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:09.040 I thought our elevators were slow, But that would be 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 that would be a leisurely elevator ride, if you were 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.320 going from the ground floor to the top floor. That 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.560 would But if but if it's the first elevator you've 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.840 ever been in, that possibly anyone has ever been, might 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:21.920 been gripping onto the side in terror for fear of 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.120 how fast it was moving. Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Uh. 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.680 And then in eighteen sixty one, Otis dies from diphtheria 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.920 because even though his elevators wouldn't fall, he fell ill. 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.720 Jonathan wrote that in the notes and I and I've 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.480 already groaned and shaken my head at it at an 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.480 earlier point today. And then she was wondering if I 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:44.880 would actually read it, and oh no, oh, no, I 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.080 knew you. Yeah, you've worked with me long enough now 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:49.960 on April. He died on April eighth, and that was 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.360 just a few months after he had been granted a 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.600 patent for his invention. Now keep in mind you know, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.760 you file a patent and it can take several years 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.040 from the time you file it to the time it's approved, right, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:00.640 I think he had He had applied for it a 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.920 full ten years previous to that in UH in eighteen 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:09.720 six No, so it was nine nine years, just just 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.960 under a decade, and he got that patent granted UH 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.720 in January of eighteen sixty one. So he he did 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.400 live to see his invention patented, but not long after 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.320 that he fell ill from diphtheria, which there wasn't dip 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.280 Theoria epidemic at the time. He died in Yonkers, New York, 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:31.440 and his his sons, however, h survived and one of them, 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.520 Charles Otis, was known as being the businessman in the family. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.240 He had a very keen I for business, and so 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.080 they took over the company and UH and they continued 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.880 to run the company and they were very successful in 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.600 eighteen seventy three. By eighteen seventy three, so this is 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:56.080 just a little over a decade after Otis had passed away, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.920 the Otis Company had sold over two thousand l of 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.360 leaders working in places like offices, hotels, and department stores. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.760 And then by eight eighty that's when a fellow, a 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.119 German by the name of Furner Vaughan Siemens, is the 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.560 first to actually use an electric motor in elevator construction. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.960 And his version was really interesting. It didn't involve cables. 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.480 You know, most most motors involve pulling some sort of 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.560 cable system to raise or lower an elevator. They're usually 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.240 they're usually working directly on that sheaf that we were mentioning, right. Instead, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.879 what this one did was it had pinion gears that 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.959 engaged racks on either side of the elevator shaft and 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:45.679 literally the gears would yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's kind 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.520 of like think of it like a locomotive, but going 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.040 vertical instead of horizontal. But but of course you have 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.040 to have those pinion gears because otherwise you don't have 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.440 enough traction to make the elevator go up. Um. But yeah, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.359 that was that was the first u of it. Now, 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.720 later we would see the electric motor. In fact, shortly 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.199 later there would be electric motors that would actually use 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.800 more traditional cable systems. Um. But that was the earliest 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.320 uh use that I could find for an electric motor. Ye, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.520 all the all the other motors up to this point 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.399 where being run by steam. Yeah, they had steam powered 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.359 and hydraulic powered and hydraulics and that was it. That 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:26.360 was it until eighteen eighty. By eight the Otis Company 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.240 had merged with fourteen other elevator companies to become the 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.200 Otis Elevator Company. So Otis was not the only name 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.359 in the elevator business at that time, but once it 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.480 merged with these other fourteen companies, that became probably I 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:44.760 would say, the most uh prevalent, most powerful elevator company 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.960 in the United States easily. This was this was around 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.600 the era when when Steele was really really taking off 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.879 and um and the the the last of the big 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.040 masonry frame buildings had were we're being completed at the time, 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.720 everything new that was starting out was all steals. So 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.880 it was a huge business. Yeah yeah, and it ended 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:08.439 up being uh. While the elevator industry in general, just 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.160 like the joke I said at the top, it did 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.200 have its ups and downs. It's is both both true 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:18.560 and funny. Um uh. You know, because there was this 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.879 ongoing trend to taller buildings. Anyone who was in the 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.160 industry knew that there was a future in it. It wasn't. 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.200 It wasn't like suddenly people weren't going to want elevators 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.520 anymore unless they decided that they no longer wanted to 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.760 have tall buildings and would rather sprawl out again. And 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:36.959 that just didn't seem like that was ever going to 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.480 come to be an option. So uh, really, that's the 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.240 basic of the timeline. I mean, of course, lots of 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.720 advances have happened since then, but that we just wanted 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.280 to kind of cover the sort of the history of 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.240 the origin, the origin of elevators and then go into 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:56.119 more about how they actually work. And the first one 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.240 we wanted to talk about, we're elevators that use and 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.800 that are elevators really because there's still are elevators that 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.240 do this that use hydraulic lift systems. They aren't using 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.960 cables at all, so and yeah, yeah, so so there 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.200 there are two basic systems, hydraulic and cables. And and yes, 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.679 hydraulics are slightly less common for several reasons that were 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:17.680 that we will get into in a moment. Right, So, 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.840 if you have a shorter type of building, like to 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.600 two to five story, I would say maybe even two 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.520 to four hydraulic elevators may be something that you've experienced, 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:34.159 because um, I mean I actually knew. I used to 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:35.919 one of the libraries I used to go to as 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.920 a kid had a hydraulic elevator. Um. And the way 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.320 these work is beneath the bottom floor. So you've got 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.440 the you know, the ground floor where the elevator comes 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.560 down to a stop. That's its final stop. It can't 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.760 go any lower and dug down Beneath that, yeah, is 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.560 your hydraulic system. And that system consists of there's a cylinder. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.359 Inside that cylinder is a piston that has the hydraulic 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.679 ram at the end of it that connects directly to 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.480 the bottom of the elevator. And then you the connected 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.119 to that cylinder is a holding tank that holds all 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.159 the hydraulic fluid. That has a very powerful pump that 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.600 can pump fluid from the hydraulic tank into the cylinder. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.840 And then there's also a return valve that when it's closed, 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.959 won't allow hydraulic fluid back in, but when you open it, 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.600 it does allow hydraulic fluid to move from the cylinder 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.439 back into the holding tank. Now, this is a closed 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.479 system that means that that hydraulic fluid is either going 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.359 to be in the tank or in the cylinder, or 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.720 there's gonna be some mix of you moving in between 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.840 the two. Right. But they but you don't lose hydraulic fluid, 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.560 assuming that there are no leaks. So uh, it means 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.520 that you can reuse that fluid over and over and 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:49.239 over and over again. So that's one reason why it's popular. Um. So, 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:51.440 the way it works is that you turn Let's say 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.399 that you're on the ground floor and you hit two, 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:55.960 you want to go up to the second floor. What 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.480 happens is that sends a signal to the hydraulic system 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.240 beneath the elevator. Uh, turns on the pump that then 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.040 starts to pump hydraulic fluid from the holding tank into 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:10.960 the cylinder. Right that the fluid pushes on the hydraulic 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.360 ram or piston and moves it up the shaft. That's right. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.080 It displaces the piston from the cylinder. So, depending on 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.080 how tall your building is, it may have to pump 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:24.600 more or less fluid into you know, whatever floor you've pressed. 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.080 So if it's a four story building and you've hit four, 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:29.560 it obviously needs to pump in enough fluid to get 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:31.320 to lift the ram all the way up to the 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.600 fourth floor. Uh. And then when you're coming down, the 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.080 valve opens up and allows fluid fluid to come back 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.560