Travelators, but that page is missing from the copy I have. The first commercial elevator was built in 1850 but used only for freight because the ropes snapped so easily. In 1853 Elisha Graves Otis introduced a safety mechanism demonstrated at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York. When tension was released from the hoist rope, a clamping mechanism would grip the guide rails. It was this safety device that allowed for the first commercial passenger eleva– tor to be installed in the Haughwout Department store in New York City in 1857. By 1903 elevators were being installed in private homes, and in 1949 the first elevator to be powered completely by electricity ran in tall, busy buildings. Modern elevators have a counterweight that balances each car along with 40 percent of its capacity. The cylinders ofhydraulic elevators must be as deep as the building that the eleva– tor services is tall-how long does it take them to dig a 60-foot hole, and how wide is it? I can't imagine pouring gallons upon gallons of water, a natural element, into the earth in a concrete compartment to run a man-made machine. How much nature has been destroyed to accommodate the sky-rises that we can now easily access, thanks to modern invention? Mom and I took the escalator back up to the street level after the film. I don't remember the next time she got on another elevator, but it was only a matter of days and sometimes I wonder if she has forgotten about the incident. Places with a high population of orthodox Jews have "Sabbath" elevators, which stop automatically at each floor, allowingJews to get on and offwithout doing "any useful work" -i.e., pushing a button. Some high traffic buildings have double-decker elevators, allowing passengers to get off and on two different floors simultaneously. Some double-decker elevators use one car for freight and the other for passengers, eliminating the need for a separate freight shaft. One variety of elevators operates from a central dispatch area and contains no buttons on the inside of the car. I cannot imagine being stuck in an elevator with no buttons-it's one thing to push buttons, the first floor, the third floor, the door-open button, to push them knowing you aren't going anywhere, but to still be able to push them. It's a 27
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