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How the elevator transformed America
Boston Globe ^ | 3/1/2014 | Leon Neyfakh

Posted on 03/01/2014 7:02:01 AM PST by Borges

For most city-dwellers, the elevator is an unremarkable machine that inspires none of the passion or interest that Americans afford trains, jets, and even bicycles. Wilk is a member of a small group of elevator experts who consider this a travesty. Without the elevator, they point out, there could be no downtown skyscrapers or residential high-rises, and city life as we know it would be impossible. In that sense, they argue, the elevator’s role in American history has been no less profound or transformative than that of the automobile.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: america; elevator; elevators; transformed
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1 posted on 03/01/2014 7:02:01 AM PST by Borges
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To: Borges

Am I the last ‘professional’ elevator operator standing? I earned money for my college expenses operating the elevator for J. C. Penney. The bank of elevators eventually was replaced by an escalator and then the store was closed.


2 posted on 03/01/2014 7:10:53 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Borges

I prefer the stairs. Been stuck before on one—I have no respect for them.


3 posted on 03/01/2014 7:14:17 AM PST by windcliff
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I had a friend who was an heir to the Otis Elevator fortune! I’ve since lost touch. I love a good elevator.


4 posted on 03/01/2014 7:14:28 AM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: Borges

My brother, who used to build elevators, says they are the safest mode of mass transportation.


5 posted on 03/01/2014 7:16:37 AM PST by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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To: Borges

elevators are engineering marvels.

perfected every decade, we now take their reliability for granted but think of the number of trips and the low percentage of minor failures and infinitesimal small percentage of major failures.


6 posted on 03/01/2014 7:18:20 AM PST by KC Burke (Officially since Memorial Day they are the Gimmie-crat Party.ha)
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To: Borges

Interesting article. But I’d suggest that it wasn’t the elevator that ushered in the skyscraper age in America: it was the use of steel frames for construction in place of the wood frame and concrete block construction that was typical of buildings at the time. If you go into older neighborhoods of a city like New York you’ll find tons of 2-3 story buildings that couldn’t be built any taller with concrete blocks.


7 posted on 03/01/2014 7:20:52 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Am I the last ‘professional’ elevator operator standing?

Sir, thank you for your service. As a kid I marveled at the skill of the elevator operators in Detroit's skyscrapers, zooming up and down, matching the floor level of the elevator to the building's floor with a single adjustment. And those snappy uniforms - my dream job. Then they automated the elevators and took all the glamor out of it. Bummer.

8 posted on 03/01/2014 7:30:07 AM PST by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of ObamaÂ’s America)
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To: Borges

I am thankful for the cities because they keep most leftists from invading the rural areas. Now if they would just build large fences around them and on our borders.


9 posted on 03/01/2014 7:30:21 AM PST by soycd
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To: Alberta's Child

Europe has quite a few building of more than three stories standing for hundreds of years ,no elevators and no steel frames. Seems about 7 floors was the usual limit of construction material and techniques.

No doubt elevators are more important than the steel frame in skyscrapers because no one would build a structure if it couldn’t be easily used;and climbing 40 flights of stairs several time daily would be ridiculous!


10 posted on 03/01/2014 7:32:53 AM PST by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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To: miss marmelstein

..growing up in NJ, we had a big factory owned by Otis (in Harrison) that we used to ride our bicycles by all the time. It was perfectly located..had access to barges (river one side) rail, (tracks ran right inside) and highway very close by.....


11 posted on 03/01/2014 7:33:53 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: shove_it

“What floor, please?”


12 posted on 03/01/2014 7:37:48 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Four dead in Benghazi")
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To: A_Former_Democrat

Mezzanine.


13 posted on 03/01/2014 7:41:03 AM PST by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of ObamaÂ’s America)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I used to have to deliver documents to an upstairs department at a downtown bank......there were two man-operated elevators.

The operators were identical twin brothers, who always dressed alike -- I regularly saw many doubletakes from newbies to the bank.

14 posted on 03/01/2014 7:42:17 AM PST by ErnBatavia (The 0baMao Experiment: Abject Failure)
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To: Borges

I can’t get into one without thinking about that scene from “The Omen.”


15 posted on 03/01/2014 7:45:03 AM PST by Lizavetta
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To: ErnBatavia

Like the bank tellers made redundant by ATMs, Caliph Baraq grieves daily for the unemployed elevator ops.


16 posted on 03/01/2014 7:45:48 AM PST by nascarnation (I'm hiring Jack Palladino to investigate Baraq's golf scores.)
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To: Alberta's Child
Actually, there is an interesting synergy with steel structures and elevators. You need a steel frame to go much above 7 floors, or walls become ridiculously thick to support a concrete or block frame. But there is little point in building much higher unless you have elevators to move people up to those higher floors. Of course the real break thru made by Otis was constructing an elevator with automatic safely features to prevent the dreaded free-fall.


17 posted on 03/01/2014 7:47:41 AM PST by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Auntie Mame

My brother, who used to build elevators, says they are the safest mode of mass transportation.
//////////////////////////////////////////
Tell that to the people trapped in the horrifying movie, ‘Devil’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYy7igKD21A

(highly recommend if you haven’t seen)


18 posted on 03/01/2014 7:55:32 AM PST by bramps (Go West America!)
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To: KC Burke

perfected every decade, we now take their reliability for granted but think of the number of trips and the low percentage of minor failures and infinitesimal small percentage of major failures.


I understand that per passenger mile, they are the safest mode of transport there is, including walking.


19 posted on 03/01/2014 7:58:17 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed ("Income Inequality?" Let's start with Washington DC vs. the rest of the nation!)
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To: KC Burke
"We now take their reliability for granted . . ."

Except the elevators on the DC Metro train system. Every day they post a list of "elevator outages" so disabled people will know to avoid those stations. And the damned things only go two or three stories!

20 posted on 03/01/2014 8:00:20 AM PST by jumpingcholla34
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