Back from the days when there genuinely were "elevator drivers" driving these for a living. The guy showing them is obviously very much aware of the potential dangers of this badboy with the "all clear" and "stand back"!!!! Nearest I've seen to this lift are the more recent three-sided lifts that you still see in Italy, but those are automated(ish).
Most all passenger elevators had inner doors, so they weren't as hazardous as the one shown. Every big department store and office building had 2 or more elevators, but from what I remember back in the '50s, they were referred to as "elevator operators", not "elevator drivers". That's also back when truck drivers were usually referred to as "chauffeurs", and a driving license for big rigs was called a "chauffeur's license".
I have not seen any three sided ones, but some older ones have a hand operated scissors gate instead of an 'inside' door which the attendant or passenger had to work. The elevator would not move until the gate was properly shut and in some cases the gate could be opened while the elevator was moving resulting in it stopping. The control logic was primitive - if you pressed the floor call button (there was only one) the elevator would come to that floor only if free. Similarly there was no logic with the buttons in the car - if you press say level 6 the elevator went there and that was that. You could do an 'unscheduled' stop by pulling the scissors gate open at the appropriate floor and hope there was not too much of a 'step'. So probably a 'driver' was used at busy times especially in a retail setting with ithe elevator being self operated 'after hours' when usage was light.
Pretty sure the guy driving is modernizing the lift car, you see the car doors in the basement at the start. (the brass coloured ones the camera man knocks with his knuckle) He will have the car door closed switch bridged to make the lift think the car doors are closed. Once he has installed the new car door operator, the car door panels will be installed and it will look like a normal lift again.
We have a smaller Otis just like this in a apartment building we maintain, it's got normal push buttons to pick floor and it's got the same exact design around the top of the car. The building was built in the 1920s and the elevator is original. Still has the original inner brass gate that you have to slide over to enter
HappyQuails: That was no freight elevator originally; look at the ornate interior and chandelier light. And it opens in the lobby. I wonder if it's still in operation using an elevator operator and these guys are repairing it. Or maybe changing it to automatic.
That's was awesome. You don't see an old lift like that very often anymore. Only thing cooler than that would be the engine room. Awesome video of a beautiful antique lift.❤
If you were to experience to be on that elevator in that same year it was built you would obviously be used to that being on those kind of elevators, and people back then were really not sensitive and really were more responsible because they really weren't distracted with phones and such things like that, and they treat things from the pass like they are dangerous because of how old and those things are, today people would exaggerate and make safety procedures and such things like that because bad things would happen, everyone was really used to doing things themselves more, people are not stupid, people are allowing to be spoiled by the government, putting them to sleep overtime as it passes by. We have touchscreen smart phones and everything just with that we have learn to trust the government, so do not blame them for their stupidity, that's because the world is improving as you can see, when you look around when you are outside.
I grew up riding an Otis just like this one, except it had a collapsible screen that kept you away from the wall as you went up or down. The fun part was they always had an operator to chauffeur you to your floor.
I rode a manual elevator like this one recently with my dad at a construction worksite but i think was older than this. It had the gate you had to pull and you saw the walls outside the gate when you move the machine. And when you come out of the elevator you saw the levels and the pointer that looked like a clock's hand pointing to each level the elevator was on at that moment and I fell in love with it. The lady who operated the elevator was so nice. I asked my dad if they are going to get rid of such a beautiful antique elevator and he said yes and I was upset about it. I would pay to ride that elevator again.
This elevator reminds me of the same elevator that I had to ride in at the hotel that I was staying at in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1974. The elevator operator worked off of tips operating the elevator.
Oh shit, did that as a kid on the 2 passenger elevators in our 22 story apartment building, and those elevators were pretty fast and I used to go from one top to the other or to an I beam between them on an upper floor. I found I could reset the floor selector by tripping the contact on the shaft doors, one poor sap wanted to get to the 21st floor and as the car started to level I tripped the contact and it would send the car all the way back to the lobby again, he tried 3 times before giving up and walking, LOL But it was scary when someone went to the top floor and you see that grating coming fast at you and it's like you are going to hit it but then the car slows and stops. I don't remember exactly how long it took to travel the 22 floors, it was probably about 30-35 seconds, a little slower than a floor per second
I ran a manual freight elevator back around 1980 in NYC in a 9 story building, but also one in our 22 story apartment building the handiman let me mess with when I was a teen :) The 9 story building also had an 1892 water powered hydraulic freight elevator that only went from the ground floor to the basement, it had a large water tank and a pump in the basement, it was real slow and started/stopped by a thru the car cable in the corner of the car, it was still there in 1981 but that space was later rented to a theater and they made changes, it's probably gone.
If you've ever been in Radio City Music Hall in NYC their stage has movable sections and that are still water powered. It's used for raising and lowering props and the orchestra section out of the basement to the stage level. The main reason it's still in use is because it's dead quiet and there are no pumps / motors to fail. It runs on the public water mains pressure.There's a very interesting Wiki page on it.
As an elevator Mechanic I can tell you there’s nothing dangerous about this elevator and they are more common than people think. They are extremely common in many multi device residential buildings in Manhattan. Mostly used as service cars for contractors and building staff. The fact that there is no gate and no interlocks leads me to suspect that they are in the middle of modernizing this elevator and replacing the hall doors. The door fixtures are all new and not consistent with Otis products.
I concur. The stuff in the basement indicates that there is construction going on somewhere, and this elevator is the likely target. These guys probably removed all kinds of warning signs just to get their 9:36 of RU-vid fame. Their attempt at hiding the location was absurd - at the end of the video, they told where it was: the Robert E Lee Hotel and a quick Google search gave its location as Lexington, Virginia. We're dealing with a couple of morons here...
Nothing dangerous about this elevator, apart from the missing car door and interlock which is the fault of whoever took them out, not the elevator. And for those who say 'modernise the elevators', its not that simple. For example, even though the standard preferred way to deliver electricity has been AC since the late 1800's, New York provided mains DC right up until 2007 - because some older buildings still had DC powered elevators.
They do not have DC mainline power. AC is delivered to the building and converted by either a generator or a rectifier to DC power to operate the motor. The reason for DC motor is that prior to the late 1980’s AC motors only had two speeds, on and off. DC allowed taller buildings to elevator motors whose speed could be changed by altering the voltage to the motor via acceleration relays and resistors. This changed with the perfection of VVVF controllers using AC frequency drives
City Hall in Philly still had really old DC elevator machinery the last time I looked at it in 2005ish. The control panels were in scary bad shape, I was afraid to breath too hard near them. There were a couple relays not even mounted and hanging by seriously old wires judging from the cloth insulation. The rest of the equipment didn't look much better. The emergency generator transfer switch for the South East corner elevator had problems too I don't even want to go into the problems with water/algae in the fuel in the generator day tanks that they did nothing about for years
Neat! Always wondered how the old ones worked! Thanks! No front door just shaft makes me a little nervous. How is it repaired and kept running today? I bet Ottis is long gone.
Elevator parts are pretty generic, you dont need to have the same company that you buy from to maintain it. Most very old elevators also dont have any original parts left apart from the cabin and the rails as they would all have been replaced during major maintenance over the years.
Wow unique experience! But @<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="278">4:38</a> when he mentioned those are residents living there.... holy cow... how much are those apart worth?
Automatic operation was NOT introduced for safety reasons. It was devised so that you could put the Operator out of a job, and keep his pay for yourself!
Tell something about thyssunkrupp elevators I am sub contractore of thyssunkrupp, Johnson lift, fujitec lift, mitsubishi elevator, Schindler also etc. Plz say which is the best
***** Je crois que je vais voler ceux des galeries lafayette de Paris :) les ascenseurs ont été moddés par des Gen2 mais les manivelles y sont toujours juste pour la déco
Obviously it's being modernized. The inside car gate has been removed and the gate switch jumped out along with the hoistway door interlocks. The first door you see is a new door with a new door closer. Would like to see the finished modernization.
