Escalator

“ Occasionally they caught glimpses of a form of escalator inside the buildings. Throughout their tour, the strange people never once gave vent to any expression of surprise at sight of the visitors from Earth. ”

“ In the case of a great store, the escalator may be constructed as one continuous machine, with landings at each floor, and so arranged that steps which carry passengers up may perform a like service in carrying others down ”

“ In the escalator each tread is attached rigidly to its riser, and the two together form an independent unit.
For the convenience of passengers in stepping on or off at the upper and lower landings, the treads in these places are all in the same horizontal plane. As they approach the incline the risers gradually appear, and the treads separate vertically. At the top of the incline the process is gradually reversed, the risers disappearing until the treads once more form a horizontal belt. ”

“ To do business in the modern lofty building without the aid of elevators (or lifts, as they are called in England) is today out of the question, while the great grain-transporting edifices in cities in which our annual crops are lifted and lowered, are known by the specific name of elevators. There is, however, another means of getting up and down stairs which is coming somewhat rapidly into use and in which the old stairway is restored. It is one in which the stair itself does the moving instead of the passengers upon it. This new and interesting device is known as an escalator. ”

“ The elevator as well as the escalator will play a vastly important part in the fabrication of the new Macy's. The one has by no means been overshadowed by the [Pg 269] growing importance of the other. There are to be in all fifty-six elevators, of one type or another, in the reconstructed building. Of all these none is more interesting than the ingenious lifts by which whole motor trucks, laden as well as empty, are carried into the structure, up eleven floors to the merchandising reception rooms and down into the basement and sub-basement for filling for the city delivery. ”

“ The broad stair in Thirty-fourth Street at which the majority of the family arrives, between eight-thirty and eight-forty-five of the business morning, is frequently choked with the rush of incoming employees. It will never be choked once the new Macy's is done. For then the workers will be handled in great volume upon a double escalator, not merely double-file, but double in the sense that ascent and descent are handled simultaneously and in compact space, very much as the double stairways that are installed in modern school-houses and industrial plants. ”

“ Every joint is turned to within 1 / 1,000 inch of absolute accuracy.
The tracks are of steel and hardwood, insulated from the ironwork which supports them by sheets of rubber. The wheels are so constructed as to be practically noiseless, so that as a whole the escalator works very quietly.
"It has been observed," says the authority already quoted, "that beginners take pains to step upon a single tread, and that after a little experience no attention whatever is given to the footing, owing to the facility of adapting oneself to the situation. ”

“ It wasn’t just rot, though there was plenty of that; it was musty and stale and old. It was dark, or nearly. About one light in twenty was turned on, in order to conserve power. Naturally the escalators and so on weren’t running at all.
I passed a counter with pencils and ball-point pens in a case. Most of them were gone—somebody hadn’t bothered to go around in back and had simply knocked the glass out—but I found one that worked and an old order pad to write on. Over by the elevators there was a store directory, so I went over and checked it, making a list of the departments worth visiting. ”

“ One of the prettiest sights about the ice harvesting is the elevator in operation. When all works well, there is an unbroken procession of the great crystal blocks slowly ascending this incline. [page 175] They go up in couples, arm in arm, as it were, like friends up a stairway, glowing and changing in the sun, and recalling the precious stones that adorned the walls of the celestial city. When they reach the platform where they leave the elevator, they seem to step off like things of life and volition ”

“ We walked in at what appeared to be the main entrance on Broadway. No one stopped us, and we wandered about rather aimlessly. Here and there were busy groups of men. Though we were on the street level, we could look down, at one place, about four stories. There was an engine-room below us, and a place where they were mixing mortar, putting it in wheelbarrows, and then shooting it up, wheelbarrow and all, to the upper floors, in elevators that moved at terrific speed. “I wonder where the passenger elevator is,” said Will.
“I guess that is it,’ I replied, pointing to a ladder. ”

“ We have to walk up a flight of stairs, and there is an elevator waiting, fortunately with the door open.
"What about the time machine?" you ask.
"Since nobody ever stole it, it's safe."
We get in the elevator, and I say "first" to it. It gives out a coughing noise and the basement openings begin to click by us. There's no feeling of acceleration—some kind of false gravity they use in the future. Then the door opens, and the elevator says "first" back at us.
It's obviously a service elevator and we're in a dim corridor, with nobody around. I grab your hand and shake it. "You go that way. ”

“ An Elevator is something which is found in but few doll-houses. It was built in this house, thinking it might please the young mistress, and it proved such a success that the scheme has been worked out carefully in Figs. 228, 229, 230, 231, and 232, that you may include it in the house you build.
The cutting of the elevator-shaft has already been described. For material, procure two small pulleys such as is shown in Fig. 230, four feet of brass chain, six feet of No. 12 wire, half a dozen double-pointed tacks or very small screw-eyes, a short piece of lead pipe, and a cigar-box. ”

“ Leaving the elevator my guide led me up one flight of steps so narrow that a corpulent man would have stuck tight, then down a similar flight on the other side, under wooden archways so low that we had to stoop, round unexpected corners, and again up a flight of steps which brought us out on the roof. Crossing a short iron bridge we entered another maze, until just as I was beginning to feel dizzy I was shown into a tiny room about ten feet square where sat an officer in the uniform of a British colonel. ”

“ On the American side, not far below the railway suspension bridge, is an elevator more than a hundred and eighty feet high, which is meant to let people down to the shore below, and to give a view of the rapids on their own level. ”

“ The ordinary elevator is very useful in a large business or commercial house, where it saves the legs of people who, if they had to tramp up flight after flight of stairs, would probably not spend so much money as they would be ready to part with if their vertical travel from one floor to another was entirely free of effort. But the ordinary lift is, like a railway, intermittent. We all know what it means to stand at the grille and watch the cage slide downwards on its journey of, perhaps, four floors, when we want to go to a floor higher up. ”

“ The ladder of ascent in this tower is of course the lift, or, as it is called, the elevator. With all that we hear of American hustle and hurry it is rather strange that Americans seem to like more than we do to linger upon long words. ”

“ Near here, less than two blocks away, I saw a shining object on the sidewalk, and picked up a key, which I was more than surprised to have traced to Mr. Leroy. I suppose he dropped it when he was hanging around here, beneath my cousin's window, on his way to the midnight train. I then came on to this house, and, after loitering about a minute in the street, I saw the elevator begin to rise. The main front door is always open, and I came in and walked up-stairs. It is easy to evade the elevator, even if it passes. ”

“ When the introductions had been completed, the committee led our little party to a small, cylindrical elevator which dropped us, swiftly and silently, on a cushion of air, to the street level of the great building. Across a wide, gleaming corridor our conductors led us, and stood aside before a massive portal through which ten men might have walked abreast. ”

“ As with one mind, Lemuel and I seated ourselves on a step and waited until Henry should get the elevator running again and could proceed to the street floor.
For a while we could hear no noise but the grating of metal on metal as Henry worked with the starting lever of the elevator, and then we heard the two voices of the fathers.
“It is a ruse,” said one father. “They are pretending the elevator is stuck, and when we grow impatient and start up the stairs they will come down with a rush and escape us.” ”

“ The lift is 754 feet and shortens the walk-in trip by about one and three-quarter hours. The elevator lets its passengers out at a point adjacent to the Big Room and the lunchroom. Installation of the elevator made it possible for elderly people and those who were not physically capable of walking in through the natural tunnel corridor to view the magic wonders of the great subterranean fairyland. ”

“ Then there's a sort of cough and something dilates in the wall. It forms a perfect door and the elevator stands there waiting. You get in, gulping out something about going all the way down, and then wonder how a machine geared for voice operation can make anything of that. What the deuce would that lowest basement be called? But the elevator has closed and is moving downward in a hurry. It coughs again and you're at the original level. You get out—and realize you don't have a light. ”

“ To ride in that elevator is to know adventure, so painfully, so protestingly, with such creaks and jerks and lurchings does it pull itself from floor to floor, like an octogenarian who, grunting and groaning, hoists himself from his easy-chair by slow stages that wring a protest from ankle, knee, hip, back and shoulder. ”

“ Then there is the elevator, lift, ascenseur. America has had the benefit of this invaluable contrivance for a generation and a half, and it is now used in all our cities and villages, in all hotels, in all lofty business buildings and factories, and in many private dwellings. But we can’t spread it, we can’t beguile Europe with it. In Europe an elevator is even to this day a rarity and a curiosity. ”

“ Others just as positively declare that the elevator is the same as the street, and that it is unnecessary to raise the hat. The question of drafts and colds in the head have entered into the discussion—but ultimately all writers of etiquette reach the same conclusion: as the elevator is so small and boasts a ceiling, it may be considered in the same class as a room, and the polite man will keep his head uncovered—especially while there are women in it. The man who is very susceptible to colds may lift his hat upon entering the car and replace it immediately. ”

“ The slight, impudent structure of the elevator rises through the solitude, like a thing that merits ruin, yet it is better than something more elaborate, for it looks temporary, and since there must be an elevator, it is well to have it of the most transitory aspect. ”

“ Lawyer.
“Why, it is three hundred and fifty feet long by two hundred and seventy-five broad.”
“Let us hurry, then; if it is so huge we have no time to lose,” was the brave response.
“Well, here’s an elevator,” I remarked.
We stepped into one of the four passenger elevators, which are run by hydraulic power. The motion was almost imperceptible, and rapid as the downward flight of a swallow. The young gent in charge told us that it could run from bottom to top and back again to bottom, through the whole seven stories of the house, in ten seconds. ”

“ On the other hand, elevators handling heavy material must be set at an angle in order to give a clear delivery at a much lower speed of 50 to 60 ft. per minute; in other words, the elevator is so inclined that the shoot for the reception of the material can be put underneath the delivering buckets which slowly disgorge their load. To obtain good results, without taking up too much space, an elevator carrying heavy material should be set at 40° to 60° to the horizontal. ”

“ A slow, safe elevator, manned by the very oldest and heaviest official in full uniform whom I have ever seen in the like charge, mounted with us to upper chambers, where we knew no more till we awoke in the morning to find the face of nature washed clean by that gentle rain, and her breath fresh and sweet, coming from the grateful lips of the myriad flowers which embloom most English towns. ”

“ The Outdoor Elevator shown in Fig. 104 to run from the ground up to that porch. If you live in an upper story of an apartment building, your elevator can be made to run to a greater height, which, of course, will make more fun.
It will save considerable work to use the porch, because for one thing you will not have to build an upper platform to stand upon to reach the elevator car when it runs to the top, and for another thing the supports for the guides and cable can be fastened directly to one of the porch posts. ”

“ The first elevator jaws should align with the second elevator bar when the first elevator is at its full up-stroke, so that the matrices will pass freely from the first to the second elevator. When the first elevator goes to the slide guide, the square head adjusting screw on the bottom of the slide comes in contact with the vise frame, regulates the height to which the elevator raises, the screw holding the slide, and the spring in the connecting link being compressed to take up the extra movement of the elevator lever. ”