WEBVTT - Going Up: Elevators 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to you stuff you should know Frondhouse stuff Works 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:13.119 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. And Josh Clark, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.919 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry. Jerry has a 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.919 personal story in this one that I teased in the 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.200 n s A podcast That's right, which were recorded like 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:29.960 weeks ago. Jerry has been stuck and rescued from an elevator. Jerry, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.760 it turns out, was stuck in an elevator, a crowded 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:39.639 elevator for four hours, crowded with the NASCAR people, as 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:41.840 it turns out, Yeah, NASCAR fans who were in town 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:43.519 for a race, I guess right. And she had to 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.720 get rescued through the top through the top. Yeah, which 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.760 we learned from this research. You can't get yourself out 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.720 through that top because it's bolted on the other side. Yeah, 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:55.600 you gotta have someone come. It's for them to get 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.920 you out, not for you to get yourself out. Sorry. 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.800 John McClean, Yeah, what you did is impossible. And there 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.160 weren't even bolts on his then he just like kicked 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.479 it up exactly. I think there was like a screen. Yeah, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.080 this ended up being way more interesting than I thought. Well, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.640 let's get to the interesting stuff. Okay, So chuck um, 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:23.720 we can begin to begin by talking about elevators and 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.600 who invented them. Yes, and it should come as no 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:29.720 surprise because if I had a dime for every time 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.640 we sat in the studio and said it started in 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.319 ancient Rome, it seems like everything started in ancient Rome 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.720 or China. Um. But in ancient Rome they did use 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.240 um you could call an elevator. It was a lift. Yeah, 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.240 it's not like an enclosed elevator, but it was you know, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.640 like a platform with pulleys that they would lift things up. 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.360 Especially doing the work of an elevator, they used people 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:59.520 livestock water screws, which means Archimedes was involved, that's right. Yeah, 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.400 you know and of a friend in New Jersey, a 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.040 bartender who when you would ask what the score of 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.000 the game was a football game, he would just breathe 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.880 by and go lion stand Christians, nothing, no matter who 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.880 was playing. This one of those bartender jokes. You know. 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.240 He'd imagine he said it a million times and probably 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.000 got it from someone else. Just an aside. Well, but 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.080 we're talking about as far back as UM three six PC. 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:30.680 Archimedes was in ancient Greek, the Syracusian maybe, Yeah, he 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:35.760 was from Syracuse, Orange Orange, um and uh So, elevators 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.880 and the concept in the functioning elevator has been around 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:44.960 for a very long time. Um. It wasn't until the 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.560 nineteenth century, though, that they really started to take shape 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.840 in a way that we see them now. They were 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.720 basically just these platforms that lifted you up and you 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.440 needed an ox. I think we should talk about Louis. 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:06.000 Um which one is he x V man I always 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.880 get that backwards. He's not a super bowl. Yeah. King 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.280 Louis he had what some people say it was the 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.960 first modern type elevator with his flying chair. It was 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.560 on the outside of her Sailles and his mistress. It 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.360 was built for Madam the Chateau rou Um. This sounds 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.359 like a made up name. No, that was her name, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.200 and she lived up on the third floor and would 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.720 go sit in her little box and lower herself down 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.120 right to the king's balcony. Um and they would do 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:44.680 the devil's business and it was very, um, very convenient 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.680 for him. He also had flying tables at dinner that 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.920 would uh lower food right at his chair like a 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.280 dumb waiter. A really dumb waiter, and he would, you know, 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.200 clap his hands, I guess, and call for the flying table, 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.240 which bring bringing bring me another guinea hen yeah, I 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.760 love guinea hens um dumb waiter, by the way, it's 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:11.040 a pretty insensitive term for that thing. Sure, you know. 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.000 And lazy Susan, what's out all about? That's very derogatory. 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.760 Did you know that lazy Susan was supposedly invented by 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.960 a Chinese American restaurant tour at Chinese restaurants, that's where 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:29.359 they're invented named Susan. Did you know that that it 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.560 was invented in a restaurant, in a Chinese restaurant, and 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.039 like San Francisco and like the fifties or forties, it 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.400 doesn't but that's what it's used for. So it's uh, 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.400 is that some revelations, Okay, I would have guessed like 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.640 like it was invented around the same time as and 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.120 by the same people as who invented like the butter 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.080 Church time frame, is what you were remarked. I thought 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.960 the Chinese restaurant kind of threw me off to the 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.640 whole thing. So at any rate, elevators have been around 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:00.719 for a while. What are the fift it's got clever. 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.360 He had one that used the system of ropes and pulleys, 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.880 which conceivably his flying chair was conceivably the first elevator, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.359 the first modern elevator ever built. But it wasn't until 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.359 the nineteenth century, like I said, that they started to 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.240 really take shape. And they still had like the kind 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.280 that were used for industrial purposes like for mining or 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.880 store houses or things like that. Um, but then passenger 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.800 elevators really started to take shape. The problem was they 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:32.520 were extraordinarily dangerous. People died. A lot of people died 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:38.320 if you had a rope system, a rope system, cable system, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.000 or tension system. Those are three names for the same thing, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.960 which basically uses a pulley and a rope to lower 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.360 and raise a box that used stand in and your 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.919 human being. That's that kind of elevator, as opposed to 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.640 a hydraulic pistons system, which is what they used pre 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.920 industrial revolutions, which makes a lot of sense. Now I'm 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.040 sorry they used it posted industrial revolution, but pre rope 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.480 and pulley system modern elevator the kind we see now. Yeah, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.760 but you couldn't have a very tall building because you're 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.920 your piston had to draw down, and if you wanted 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:14.560 to go up, you had to draw that thing down 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.080 just as far. Yeah, the piston had to be as 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.520 tall as the floor of the tallest floor of the building. 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.440 And then yeah, you had to have that pit that 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.880 was equally deep. Right, that's right, that's a deep pit 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.920 if it's a tall Building's right, it's not so we 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.719 so yes, that is a little segue that humanity took 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.599 with the piston or hydraulic elevator, and apparently they were 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:40.640 still um popular in mansions. And have you ever seen 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.600 the movie Lady in a Cage. Uh, it's a black 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.440 and white movie with the Jimmy Khan overacting like a 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:53.000 crazy as a hoodlum in like the fifties. Um, And 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.120 I can't remember the name of the famous star who's 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.040 the woman in the cage. But the cage is an 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.080 elevator that's trapped between floor in our mansion and things 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.000 go really badly for it's a good movie. Not have 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.599 to check that out. Um. But the rope and pulley system, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.640 the reason why it didn't become the modern elevator until 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.760 the eighteen fifties is because there was no safety mechanism, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.080 those ropes would break, and like you said, a lot 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.480 of people died because the whole thing we just go 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.200 all the way down to the of the shafts and 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.240 kill everybody on board. There's nothing to stop it, which 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.680 is uh, some people's greatest fear is being on And 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.680 we'll get to that stuff later, like what might happen? Yes, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.360 we will teaser. But along came a guy named Elijah Otis, 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.560 whose last name you might recognize. Yeah, in eighteen fifty two, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.480 he and his sons, uh said, you know what these 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.800 things need, They need a safety device some people don't die, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.880 and so they created and debuted very famously the safety 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.240 Hoist the fifty four New York World's Fair when he 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.120 dramatically got in and said, cut the rope, and they 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.800 cut the rope and it fell like a foot and 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.560 then the safety device break and everyone went, wow, that's awesome. 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.720 It worked, that's right, And it's like it was attested 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.679 on a spring and as long as the rope was tense, 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.120 the spring would stay tripped, tripped, no untripped. And then 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.440 when the tension was released, because the rope is no 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.120 longer there, the spring will go and those the breaks 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.520 like you said, would come out, and that's basically still 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.120 in use today. A lot of elevators like this thing 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.360 that he created in eighteen fifty two. It's it's they 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.160 still build it into brand new elevators today. Yeah, some 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.360 of them they'll have uh, you know, it's a notch, 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:40.000 notches cut into the railing that guides the elevator. So 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.520 when those little things spring out, it just clicks into 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.760 the next notch. Some wedges go into them and they 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.560 can't go any further. And you're like, oh, man, thank 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.560 God for Elijah Otis and his sons. Right. So a 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.640 lot of people say, well, Elijah Otis invented the elevator, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.600 the modern elevator. He did not. Actually, he invented the 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.200 safety mechanism, invented the non killing elevator that that allowed 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.640 rope and pulley systems to become ubiquitous and used in 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.240 all sorts of buildings for people to trust them. And 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.520 so he probably created the modern elevator industry is a 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:14.360 better way to put it. Yeah. I mean he formed 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.480 an elevator company and the Otis brothers and did pretty 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.840 well with it. But there was another Yeah, he's dead, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.439 but his company's doing great. Yeah, I think like eight 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.280 percent of elevators or Otis elevators. But he's dead. He's 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.400 very much dead. He this was well over a hundred 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.959 and fifty years ago. There's another Otis who is contemporaneous 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:39.000 to Elijah Otis, but his first name was Otis Otis Toughs. Yeah, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:44.719 what are the chances? Apparently pretty high? Yeah, so this 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:49.640 Otis Toughs fella. He actually invented what we would recognize 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.000 as the first modern elevator a couple of years before 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:58.480 Elijah Otis got his patent on his safety mechanism, and 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.320 it was basically a car, yeah, with automatically opening and 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:07.079 closing doors. There were benches, which all of the early 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.800 elevators had, which apparently we'll get too later, is why 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.520 we all face forward? Yeah, well sure, that's one reason, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.560 and just to not be weird it's another one. But 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.800 he had a really good idea that was extraordinarily safe. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:28.600 The Otis um tufted. His elevator was basically had a 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:33.080 hole going through the middle that was threaded, and so 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.439 his elevator acted like a nut that was going around 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.240 a very long screw that went from top to bottom. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.080 That's what the elevator went up on. So I guess 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.920 you would turn the screw and the thing would probably 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.880 be pulled down or pulled up, and it would it would. 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.520 There's no safety issues whatsoever. But it was very impractical 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.120 because it was very expensive. And again, this screw would 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.680 have to be at least as tall as the building. 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.200 That's a that's a big yeah. So he was not 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.840 able to sell a lot of them. He did, okay, 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.640 but it wasn't widely adopted because it was just impractical. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.480 Everybody yeah and said, hey, these Otis brothers have really 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.680 got it going on because they're safe, they're efficient, and 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:20.520 we can scale this out. You know, it's a scalable product. Um. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:26.280 So that's the story of how the elevator came to be. Yeah, 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.839 that's the end of that one, right, all right, Well, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:30.880 right after this break, we are going to talk a 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.679 little bit about safety mechanisms and why you don't faulter 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:47.000 your death now. All right, So we talked a little 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.439 bit about some of the safety, but let's talk a 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:55.400 little bit about the how an elevator works. UM. Modern 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:01.000 elevators use a cable system where the cable is looped 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.000 over a sheave. It's very simple actually, and I say cable, 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.640 but several cables, uh, and it is just has a 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.960 grooved rim surface the sheep does. And it's just basically 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.559 there's a counterweight on the other side. Elevator goes up, 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.760 counterweight goes down. Elevator goes down, counterweight goes up. Each 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.000 of those cables, by law, is required to be able 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:29.160 to hold the elevator fully loaded plus and by itself. 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.840 But there's still like four to seven eight cables usually 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.200 per elevator car. So you would have to have all 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.679 of those eight snap in order to put yourself even 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.679 in the slightest bit of danger. But that's when other 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.240 fail safes come into play to help you from dying. Right, 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.480 So you're the elevator cables are not going to snap 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.000 pretty much ever, because not only are there um all 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.280 of these extra cables, there elevator inspectors who examine the 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.480 cables to make sure there's nothing wrong with them, and 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.040 he's like, seven of these are shot, but you still 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.800 got the one, so it's fine. Um, So it's the 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.640 cable snapping is not going to be a problem. But 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.520 if if all of the cables did snap, if somebody 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.480 got up there and cut through them within a seedling torch. 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.680 Let's just say that happened you you the car, the 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:26.000 elevator car would basically fall about two ft because remember 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.640 we talked about that thing that was invented by Elijah 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.319 Otis that's still in use today. Well, there are some 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.160 things that are UM connected to governors. The cables that 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.040 are bolted to the top of the car and run 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.920 through the sheave, which is basically a giant pulley. They 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.920 also go through a governor speed governor, and when that 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.200 governor starts spinning really fast, which tells it that that the 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.840 cables are spinning really fast, it automatically trips those wedges 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.000 which go into the grooves into the rail that the 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.280 elevator car runs on. So it'll fall about two feet. Yeah, 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:57.880 and that's if it has I mean, there are different 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.720 kinds of breaking systems, but that is certainly one. Another 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:06.000 one is uh this kind of um break shoe basically 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.439 that goes around the rail like a roller coaster, right 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.560 and then um when the governor pulley senses that it's 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.959 spinning too fast, it trips those and they just gripped 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.720 the rail. Either way, you're gonna fall just a feet 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.200 a foot or two. Yeah, And I don't think we 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.400 said that this is it's an electric motor that spins 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.000 the sheath that pulls the cables up and down, right, 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.400 I thought that was obvious, But we should point that out. 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.520 We should. And it's a pretty elegant system actually, because 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.760 the counterweight and the elevator weigh fairly close to the 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.760 same um. So the motor that's running the sheave only 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.040 has to overcome the force of friction to basically tip 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.080 the balance between the two so that whichever one is 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.000 lower will pull the other one down. So that's how 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.440 an elevator goes up and down. So let's say the 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.280 cables have been cut, and this diabolical villain that once 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.760 you dead in a very expensive and time consuming there's 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.680 a lot easier ways to kill somebody um has also 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:08.800 somehow removed all of the safeties. That's what in elevator jargon, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.240 the safety mechanism are called safeties. That's the fact of 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:17.120 the podcast. Uh what happens then? So you're saying, let's 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.480 you are just plummeting, you're free say free fall, But 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.000 as this article points out, it's not quite freefall. Because 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.320 there's gonna be friction because it is on on rails 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.000 and you can't be and you're not in a vacuum. No, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.600 you're And what's more, because you're not in a vacuum, 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.880 there's air beneath you, and this elevator car that is 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.920 takes up most of the space and the shaft um 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.600 is compressing the air beneath it, so it's creating a 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.680 cushion of air. And like you said, the friction from 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:48.600 the rails is slowing the whole thing down. So yeah, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.640 you're not gonna enter free fall, which is where there's 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.240 no force of gravity exerted on you at all. No, 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.840 you're gonna be slowed down, but you're definitely gonna feel 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.760 like you're falling. You know, you're gonna be moving at 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.920 a of speed, a dangerous rate of speed. But at 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.800 the very bottom there are shock absorbers built in. And 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.360 it looks like, I mean, a big springy, spongy thing, 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.960 and that's basically what it is. It's a cylinder, uh 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.760 piston filled with oil usually and so that'll help you 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.600 out a little bit too, probably keep you from getting killed. Yeah, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.800 depending on where you fall from. And there's apparently one 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.320 instance in the history of elevators, at least in America, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.520 that um where actually happened. Yeah, where these cars have 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:37.840 fallen modern elevator cars have fallen from a significant height. Um. 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.800 And that was in when a Bift two bomber accidentally 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.600 ran into the another World Trade Center, the Empire State 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:50.200 Building and basically cut the cables, the safety breaks, everything 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:55.000 on two elevator cars that dropped from the seventy ninth floor. Yeah, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.920 it's happened once, all the way down and the one 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.600 woman who was a board survived. That's seventy nine floors, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.879 that's eight h ft. It's a long way. Yeah, and 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:12.000 that was in that was cushioning, right, you know, imagine 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:13.960 it's a little better now. Well. One of the things 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:15.760 that saved her though, is that she was in the 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.720 corner of the car m because the cable, the elevator 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.520 cable started to coil up beneath it as it fell 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.840 down through the through the bottom of the car, and 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.199 it was you know, she was drunk, and you know 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.920 what they say, it's a cigarette the whole drunk. Then 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.600 I think your body is that a is that a 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.200 misnomer that your body like can accept, Like an accident 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.000 more readily if you're drunk, because it doesn't stiffen up. 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.360 I've always heard that might be a wives tale. All right, 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.040 So let's talk a little bit about if you are 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.120 going to die or suffer a devastating injury on an elevator, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:18:00.000 chances are no, Um, you have a point zero zero 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.199 ro zero zero zero zero one five percent chance of 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.120 dying on your average elevator ride. How did you come 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.440 up with that number? Well, how you do any average? 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.879 You multiply? Well, we don't get into the math of it. 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.840 Eight billion passenger trips on elevator per year. Seven people 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.800 die on average per year UM. And most of those 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.160 are people that work on elevators UM repairing them. So 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.080 your chances are they say, greater of getting struck and 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.639 killed by lightning, and everyone knows that's not you know, 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.520 you shouldn't worry about dying in an elevator. And it 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.240 says that escalators are ten times safer. That's not necessarily true. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.119 That's what the elevator people say. It depends. They did 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.000 a study of senior citizens with like a median age 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.600 and I think eighty years UM, and found that there 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:56.160 were higher um, there were a higher number of um 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.960 accidents on escalators, but zero fatality. He's over this fourteen 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.920 year period, there's fatalities and elevator accidents. And we should say, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.919 like there's a very very slow or slim chance of 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.119 being injured in an elevator. What did you say? Point 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:20.359 zero zero zero zero zero zero one five. That's a 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.040 small chance, but it does happen. Yeah, and if you 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.640 and if you do die in an elevator accident, it's 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.200 gonna be pretty gnarly. Have you did you see the 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.480 lady in China? Yeah? I mean, well, there's there's all 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.600 kinds of stories that will put the fear of God 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.879 into you. Um. This this one lady Suzanne Heart in 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.440 two thousand eleven and at Exaci, New York, stepped onto 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.840 her elevator, the door closed on her, grabbed her and 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:51.199 took off up the shaft and killed her, and not 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.560 in a pleasant way. Now, that same week, a woman 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.120 at cal State Long Beach had the exact same thing 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.680 happened to her as she was stepping on the elevator. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.640 The car just suddenly went up and took her with it. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.199 They cut her in a half. Yeah. Wow. Um. A 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:12.120 nurse in China, same thing happened to her, apparently. Statistically speaking, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.399 if you're going to be injured by a malfunctioning or 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.320 killed by a malfunctioning elevator, it's going to be while 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.000 you're getting on or off and the thing starts moving 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.760 up without you realizing that it's about to happen. Because 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.080 if it does happen, it happens pretty quick. Yeah. I 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.480 started since reading this, I started getting on and off 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.640 of elevators for very fast. Well, that's one thing that 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.679 you should do. You should also pay attention to to 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.520 your surroundings, what's going on. That's that's the problem, because 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.320 getting on and off of an elevator is a pretty 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.879 mindless thing to do. And as um Nick PLOWM. Gartner 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:50.840 points out, who wrote probably the greatest article anyone's ever 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.040 written on elevators in the history of humanity. It's in 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:56.240 the New Yorker. It's called up and then Down? And 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.119 how many articles did you read to compare it to 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.880 just this one? Dude? I would put it up against 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.560 any other article you can come up with. There's someone 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.040 out there that wrote one. This like Josh didn't even 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.680 look at mine. I would read it. If they thought 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.919 it compared anyway. He points out that not only is 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.399 it like a mindless thing getting on and off of 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.960 an elevator, we don't even think about what's going on 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:23.400 during the elevator ride, like we our brains are basically 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.040 like I'm on a leven, I get in, go through 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.439 these doors, and now I get out of the doors 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:33.000 and I'm on. Well. Yeah, and people they've done studies 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.360 like it that way. Um. Other they've thought about, hey, 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:40.960 maybe we should um make the elevator clear so people 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:45.679 can see what's going on, and that people round me said, no, 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.720 I don't want a clear elevator. I don't want to 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.359 see those cables. I want to get in my little 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.040 box and get spit out on whatever floor I pushed 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:58.160 the button for and the whole um you know, music, Yeah, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:05.400 music came about to um to calm people down on elevators, 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.040 to drown out the noise of the elevator mechanism working, 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.400 and just to to calm people down. Yeah, because if 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:19.119 you're elevator phobic, it means almost that you are claustrophobic 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.119 and you don't like being in that small space with 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.800 those people. And experts say that if you have a 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:29.800 big elevator fear. You just got basically your fight or 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.800 flight responses being hijacked in the situation that's truly not 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.680 dangerous because when that's when it's supposed to kick in. 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:39.800 But the idea of being trapped in Jerry's case with 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.560 NASCAR fans is enough to make her possibly hyperventilate and 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.879 have a panic attack. Uh if she is also claustrophobic, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.160 which about five percent of people are, well, I think 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:56.000 elevator phobia and claustrophobia overlap kinda, but they're not one 0:22:56.040 --> 0:23:01.399 and the same right now. Okay, that's what you're saying. Yeah, okay, Um, 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:03.920 how do you get over that? Well? I mean it 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.520 could be genetic. Some people think that phobias like that 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.800 our genetic. Others think that it comes from being trapped 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.040 in something when you were a kid and comes out 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.959 later when you could always go to the CBT route 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:18.439 and have a doctor lock you in a small box 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:20.320 over and over until you get used to it. I 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:25.600 think that's basically what they do. I think also though, um, 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:30.480 probably the more common therapy would be exposure therapy, where 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:32.679 you and your doctor go to the elevator down the 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.919 hall in the doctor's office building, and um go up 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:37.680 and down a couple of times. I read an l 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:42.800 A Times article about this um, this psychologist who treated 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:45.600 people with a fear of elevators, and she said that, 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:47.800 you know, you start out by just looking at the 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.119 elevator and then maybe getting on for a second, then 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.240 getting right back off, you know. And she said, over 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.440 the course of probably about ten rides, by the tenth one, 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:01.080