March 30, 2020 • 31 mins
Elevators seem pretty mundane, until you realize a certain king used them to hide his mistresses; a certain politician used them to exaggerate the height of his buildings, and all of America refused to ride them until a certain marketing genius (the one and only P. T. Barnum!) designed a stunt to get everyone on board.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
I Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So I heard
this fact yesterday that a lot of buildings in New
York lie about how tall they are. The buildings are
lying about how tall they are. Well, maybe it's the builders,
(00:23):
but they exaggerate about their buildings. So you know how
guys have this reputation for lying about their height. Right
of course, so in New York City builders will lie
about how tall their buildings are to attract a certain clientele,
which is weird to me, and people just buy it.
I guess they do because the way they trick people
is with the elevators. Unless you're gonna count each and
every floor, the only way you're going to interact with
(00:44):
all the floors is through the buttons on the elevators. Right,
Some of this tends to be innocent. Some builders skipped
the thirteenth floor because they're superstitious, so you get someone
talking about like a fifteen story building when it's only
fourteen stories. But other builders love the grandeur. The first
example that comes up when you google this phenomena is
Trump Tower, though the owner and his family supposed to
(01:04):
live on the sixty six through floor. The building is
actually ten floors shorter than that. It's only fifty eight stories.
You know. I feel like I've seen this in other
places to like when you walk past first class in
a plane and you're like, those are rows one through four,
and then you go back to where we're trying to
sit and it's immediately like the tent throw. Yeah, exactly,
it's so weird. But I'm curious in terms of the buildings,
(01:26):
like how do they hide the ten floors? It's very similar.
So the building has a huge, beautiful atrium with the
tall ceiling, but the elevators start counting from floors thirty
instead of twenty, which is the actual height. Trump Tower
also does this where it's supposed to be ninety floors,
but if you stand at the top, it's only seventy
two stories high. It's like really common phenomena. And the
way the buildings trick you is through the elevators. You know.
(01:49):
Elevators are an interesting topic, and I think there's a
lot to talk about here, from why it's so awkward
to ride an elevator with strangers, to whether the closed
door button actually does anything to most hortantly why are
all elevators named otis? This has always puzzled me. So
we've got a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Yeah,
(02:28):
he their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh Ticketer and on the other side of that
soundproof glass dress like a lift operator from the nineteen fifties,
and he's adjusting his desk chair up and down. I mean,
it's really impressive. He's actually hinted that he was looking
forward to this and he has really lived up to
(02:48):
the challenge here. That's our good pal and producer. Loll lull.
You are looking good. So Mango, what is our first
stop on this elevator tour? So actually, before we kick off,
I've got a little bit of house key thing to
tie up. In our last episode on Nine Comic Book Heroes,
we talked about this terrible character, the Red Bee, and
his secret weapon, this ridiculous train being named Michael who
(03:11):
you know, if you'll remember, he'd keep him in his
belt then unleash him on villains. But one of our
listeners on Twitter, Charles Poor, pointed out that male bees
don't sting. That's a very good point. Yeah, yeah, it
only makes Michael seem more useless. It's true. That just
makes it that much better though. So thank you so much, Charles.
If you d m me your address, I'll send you
(03:32):
a small package of honey as a thank you. But
back to elevators, and I want to go back to
a time when elevators were a little more dangerous. Yeah, so,
I know modern elevators started to take shape. I guess
it was, you know, as early as the eighteen fifties.
But were they around long before that? Like when exactly
was the first elevator made. So it kind of depends
on your definition. But if you take just the basic
(03:53):
concept of an elevator, like a machine that can lift
things vertically, then you're probably talking about a few thousand
years ago. For instance, it's possible that the Egyptians used
vertical lifts to build their pyramids, but that's still speculation.
Like the first recorded use of vertical lift that comes
from the third century b C. And this is when
the mathematician our communities built a platform that could be
(04:15):
hoisted up and down using ropes and pulleys. Now, these
early lifts obviously didn't run on electricity. Instead, they were
powered by people, animals, in some cases even water. They
also weren't used as people movers. Instead, the hoists were
mostly used to lift building materials or water jugs. And
it wasn't until a few centuries later that primitive elevators
were finally used to transport living creatures. This was in
(04:37):
the first century CE, when Roman gladiators and wild animals
would ride the lifts from the lower levels up to
the floor of the colisseum. Right, So even then, most
people probably wouldn't have trusted their lives to an elevator,
I would assume at least at that point. And they
were considered safe enough though for enslaved combatants and lions
or whatever. But the average citizen would have probably chosen
(04:58):
the stairs still, definitely, and and there was just still
too much room for error when you had, you know,
people or donkeys pulling the ropes. People didn't really start
using elevators by choice until more reliable systems were developed.
For instance, in UH seventeen forty three, King Louis the
fifteenth had one of the earliest passenger elevators installed in
the palace at Versailles. He was a ladies man and
(05:18):
the private elevator was an easy way for his mistress
to visit him in secret, and he referred to it
as a flying chair. Basically, all you have to do
to operate it was to pull a cord connected to
a police system and from their gravity and a series
of counterweights would do the rest. Pretty clever, I guess, yeah.
And and in the early eighteen hundred, steam actually gets incorporated,
and this ends up being super helpful because steam powered
(05:41):
lifts were able to move much heavier loads. You're thinking
about things like cold or lumber and steel um and
suddenly this could all be raised hundreds of feet in
a matter of seconds. This new capacity led to major
booms and construction and mining and and it's actually a
big part of what made the Industrial revolution so transformative.
But steam powered elevator still had one major flaw. They
(06:03):
were really dangerous, like super dangerous, and and if a
rope snap, the lift would just plummet. And unfortunately, that
happened pretty often all through the first half of the
nineteenth century, right And it's around that halfway point that
an entrepreneur, an inventor named elisha Otis enters the picture.
We mentioned that name earlier, and he got into the
elevator game in eighteen fifty two while working on a
(06:25):
project for a company that made bed frames. So the
client needed a way to move heavy manufacturing equipment to
the second floor of its factory. There was only one problem, though,
and that was that the equipment they were moving was
so heavy that the lifting cables couldn't bear the weight
for all that long. So there was this constant risk
that the cables were going to snap, and if that happened,
there would be nothing to stop the elevator from plunging
(06:47):
straight to the ground floor. So Otis's solution to the
problem was to develop the world's first safety device for elevators.
It was basically like a brake system that functioned as
a fail safe for the lift. So if the cable
should break, the loss of tension would trigger the release
of these levers on either side of the elevator car,
and then these levers would lock and do these series
(07:09):
of grooves that were along the vertical rails of the elevator,
and that would sort of arrest the fall and and
lock the car in place. So it's pretty innovative. That's
pretty amazing. So so I just want to make sure
I have this straight. Like, the vertical rails were already
part of the elevator design, right, Like, they just didn't
have that like locking system built into them until Otis
came along. Yeah, that's right. I mean all of the
elevators of the era were braced on either side by
(07:31):
these vertical rails that helped keep the car steady as
it was going up or down. And so those rails
were completely smooth, though, so if a cable broke, the
car would just slide right down the rails and free fall,
which would obviously be dangerous and terrifying. And so Otis's
breakthrough was to carve grooves into the rails and create
kind of a saw toothed ratchet system that would act
(07:53):
as these brakes. Industrial companies recognized the merits of the
new breaking system right away, and Otis quickly set to
work on, you know, filing orders for freight elevators. But
the public was still unconvinced. Was understandably because it is,
you know, such a different invention and everything, but most
people viewed elevators as these death traps, and they were
(08:14):
unlikely to be swayed from this opinion by these confusing
diagrams they were singing and all these technical explanations. So
in order to really trust such a system, people would
need to see it for themselves. And so at the
World's Fair in eighteen fifty four, Elisha Otis allowed them
to do just that. So you're saying that, like fair
goers were actually willing to get into these elevators and
(08:37):
test the brake systems. No, still not at this point.
But Otis thought about that, I mean, he anticipated that,
and so he arranged a stunt that would instead put
only one person's life on the line, and that, of course,
was his own. And so here's what happened. That You're
at the Crystal Palace Exposition Hall, and Otis constructed this
fifty foot wooden elevator. Then, with some help from none
(08:59):
other than P. T. Barnum himself, Otis gathered this crowd
and promised them this death defying stunt unlike any they
had ever seen. So the crowd is, you know, hyped
up and everything. And Otis then dramatically rides the elevator
to the very top, where he then ordered an axe
wielding assistant to cut the rope that held up the elevator.
(09:20):
The onlookers were stunned and sort of braced themselves for
this tragic scene, but thankfully it never came. And that's because,
you know, of course, to their surprise and great relief,
the platform dropped just a few inches and then came
to a complete stop. The crowd was blown away by this,
but they were also skeptical of how reliable the system
(09:40):
really was. And you know, they thought, maybe Otis just
got insanely lucky, and there was no guarantee that the
brakes would work a second time. So Otis performed the
stunt again and again and again. Every hour of the
day that the fair was open. He performed this stunt,
and in this way, little by little, one crowd at
a time, him Otis won over the public and convinced
(10:02):
them that elevators were at long last safe to ride.
That is such an amazing stunt, Like, it's such an
amazing pr thing that all you're basically doing is riding
an elevator. Pretty amazing. But you know, I'm guessing this
was a turning point for Otis, Like I read that
the first passenger elevator to use his brake system was
installed in New York in eighteen fifty seven, so it
(10:25):
was still about three years after the fair. But but
then the floodgates really open, and within sixteen years more
than two thousand passenger elevators were operating all across the country. Yeah,
there was definitely a snowball effect to all of this.
And you know, sadly Otis actually didn't live long enough
to see just how widely embraced his invention became. He
passed away in eighteen sixty one, just a few years
(10:47):
after his first elevator was installed in New York. But
his sons did carry on the family business, along with others,
and and and they worked to make improvements on that
original design, including the switch to hydraulic power and eventually,
of course, to electricity. Now, all of this innovation helps
secure the elevator's place as one of the most highly
(11:08):
traffic transport systems in the world. And that's not an exaggeration.
According to the l A Times, the world's elevators now
move the equivalent of the Earth's population every seventy two hours.
If you think about that, every three days, over seven
and a half billion people take a ride on an elevator.
That is not something I'd even comprehended. That's pretty remarkable. Yeah,
(11:30):
it's it's it's really crazy. And it's especially true of
Otis elevators, which are still going strong today. For example,
the elevators in the Eiffel Tower road to selevators, so
are the ones in the Empire, State Building, the White House,
the Vatican, the Kremlin. I mean, the list goes on
and on, and the company is now one of the
two largest elevator manufacturers in the world. And that's why
(11:51):
if you step into an elevator today, the chances are
you will find that Otis name inscribed on the walls there,
which makes a lot more sense than all the elevator
is in the world being nicknamed Otis. But uh I,
I think we should talk some more about the rapid
growth phase that elevators went through near the turn of
the twentieth century. You actually mentioned that there are a
couple thousands spread across the country by the early eighteen seventies,
(12:14):
but the majority of those were still being used in
industrial settings, and and you'd find the safety elevators in
in coal mines or construction sites, but it was still
pretty rare to see one in an office building or
apartment complex. Yeah, the average person didn't come into contact
with elevators all that often. And that finally starts to
change in the eighteen seventies, though, is business owners begin
(12:36):
adding elevators to their office buildings and and that's really
what launched the invention into its next phase, where you
start to see all the architectural and cultural impacts that
elevators have had. Yeah, I mean, it's wild to think
about how different the cities we know would look if
it weren't for elevators, Like, no skyscrapers, high rise apartments,
like all the buildings would just be a few stories tall.
(12:58):
It's funny when you look back and realized that higher
floors would you know, they used to be the least
desirable spaces in a building. Like today we connect higher
floors with a sense of luxury. They're more private, farther
removed from the noise of the streets, you know, not
to mention those birds eye view of the skyline. But
before elevators made them more accessible, those top floors were
(13:19):
seen as inconvenient like In fact, they were typically set
aside for either low rent tenants or like the in
house janitor, So how many stairs you had to climb
to get to your apartment was really kind of a
status signifier, like the fewer obviously the better, exactly, and
and and so when elevators came along, not only did
those higher floors get much more appealing and much more valuable,
(13:40):
they also got much higher. So thanks to the advent
of steel frame construction, and of course thanks to elevators,
buildings could suddenly be built much taller than before. This
basically meant that anyone who owned a building no longer
need to fight for new land to develop on, like
that's something that's always in short supply and cities. Instead
they can simply build upwards new offices, hotel rooms, retail
(14:04):
space like there's nothing but air above. So in a way,
elevators literally shaped the cities we know today. I actually
found this great quote from this guy named Patrick Karajat,
and he's the founder of the Elevator Museum in New York.
And according to him quote, if we didn't have elevators,
we would have a megalopolis, one continuous city stretching from
(14:24):
Philadelphia to Boston, because everything would be five or six
stories tall. It's interesting to think about as this choice
between a sprawling, horizontal city or is more densely clustered,
vertical one. And it reminds me this cool Boston Globe
article that talked about a kind of invisible war between
elevators and cars that's been going on for the past
(14:44):
century or so. So the ideas that you have these
two new technologies that we're basically pushing us in two
different directions. On the one side, you had cars, which
allowed people to travel horizontally, and the other you had elevators,
which of course move people vertically. And city planners had
to choose which of these new technologies they were going
to get behind, which you know, which one they were
(15:06):
going to focus on developing their cities around. And if
you looked up an American city during the last hundred years,
it's pretty obvious you know which one they picked, definitely.
But it's not like cars were left by the wayside
or any thing. Like elevators may have won the battle
to shape cities, but cars are still the you know,
transportation of choice, and suburbs where the sprawl is is
much less of an issue. Yeah, I guess in the
(15:27):
end it's it's sort of been a draw in that
sense between those two. But all right, so We've seen
how elevators have evolved over the years, and I feel
like we should check out a few things about them
that have actually stayed the same. Before we get to that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
(15:55):
Genius and we're talking about the eccentricities of elevator etiquette. Right, Magoes,
we talked about the elevator's effect on our architecture and
daily routines. Now let's talk about how elevators affected the
people who rode them, Because when you think about it,
passenger elevators really created a new kind of social situation,
like one that's strangely intimate yet impersonal at the same time.
(16:17):
It's always a little bit weird to be in an
elevator full of people, or even more weird to be
with one person. But you know, this new dynamic raised
all kinds of questions about what was proper behavior when
riding an elevator. The one hot debate, for example, was
whether a man should remove his hat while riding in
an elevator with a woman. You know, I'm sure you
(16:38):
think about this all the time and really worried about, like,
should he take his hat off as he would in
a restaurant or leave it on as he would, you know,
on a train or a bus. I mean, it's a
lot to think about. I don't think I even realize
you're supposed to leave your hat on on a bus,
but yeah, leave it on. But it's interesting because restaurants
and busses are both examples of public spaces, right, So
for elevators, it was really more about whether they were
(17:00):
a mode of transportation or just another room in the building,
albeit a moving room. So it's kind of a tough
call because both descriptions are technically a fit for that. Yeah,
it's true, and I think that was really what through people,
Like the elevator was a mode of transportation inside a building,
So which set of rules do you follow now? Unlike
riding a bus, riding an elevator brought unclear expectations for
(17:23):
social interaction, Like even if you don't know the other passengers,
you know that they live or work in the same
building as you, and so there's this sense that you
should at least acknowledge that in some way, whether by
nodding or smiling or making small talk or whatever. Right,
But we never want to be the person to make
that call, right, like everyone wants to wait for the
other person to make the first move in those situations,
(17:45):
so it always creates this I don't know, like anxiety
or tension or something. No, I don't know. I usually
just go ahead and get in and get everybody a
hub and just get that out of the way exactly.
And it feels like, now, more than a hundred and
fifty years after their invention, we still haven't gotten over
those feelings of of discomfort. It's like, despite all the
(18:05):
advances in elevator design, the one thing we can't seem
to resolve is is this inherent awkwardness of taking this
short ride with other strangers. So I am curious if
you know what causes that, like, like what makes it
feel so awkward? Yeah, I was definitely curious about this.
This was actually one of the first things we were
looking into this week, and it turns out there are
(18:25):
a few reasons. So one deals with something that international
tourists here a lot, which is that we Americans love
our personal space. So typically we like to keep at
least in arm's length of distance between us and other people,
and the elevator is one of the rare places where
that's not always possible, and so that's you know, what
brings on some of that awkwardness. Now, the other thing
(18:47):
that was is a bit more universal, and that's that
most of us are at least a little bit anxious
of being trapped in a steel box, which may sound obvious,
and and not only that you're dangling from the roof
by by this cable. And that's despite the fact that
elevators are actually super safe. In fact, they are one
of the safest ways to travel period. So for example,
(19:10):
about people die taking the stairs each year, which is
just a really bizarre fact. But according to Consumer Watch,
there are only about twenty seven elevator related deaths per
year worldwide. Not gonna be honest, I wouldn't even know
it was it was that much. And considering that elevators
make roughly eighteen billion trips each year according to the
(19:30):
l A Times, that works out to an exceptionally low
fatality rate. It's about a point zero zero zero zero
zero zero one five per trip. So you know, the
awkwardness you feel in an elevator is very real, but
the sense of danger not so much. Well, I mean
that definitely tracts with what I learned this week about
(19:52):
the origin of elevator music. So I I always assumed
that the music was there to calm people's nerves and
make them less worried about going, you know, something going wrong.
But according to elevator historians, of which there are actually
a great many, I found out this week elevator music
was really invented to help alleviate boredom and to fill
that awkward silence that comes from riding a lift with strangers.
(20:14):
I do kind of like the awkward silence. Was just assume, like,
of course people will choose that over small talk with
a stranger, you know, I know, and I guess building
owners were like, we know, you aren't going to talk
to each other. So here's some music to fill that
void where where I guess the human interaction is supposed
to go. It's too bad it doesn't doesn't really work.
I mean reality, there is no escaping the awkward, or
(20:34):
at least not until you hit the closed door button
really quickly when you see a stranger coming, just to
avoid the whole situation entirely. So here's the thing I
learned about that. You know, it turns out that closing
the elevator door on a stranger doesn't really work, and
that's because the closed door button and most American elevators
is ineffective. It actually, I guess, sort of makes sense.
I always suspected that was the case. But is this
(20:56):
by design or did the buttons just malfunction a lot,
or like, what what's happening? It is by design, so
the reason why is pretty interesting. Apparently, when the Americans
with Disabilities Act was first passed, it included a list
of requirements for elevators, and these are things like raised buttons,
braille signs, and another requirement was that elevator doors had
to remain open for at least three seconds, and that
(21:18):
way someone with the disability would have enough time to
get inside before the doors closed. Some manufacturers complied with
the law by ensuring that the closed door buttons don't
cut that time short, but others just want to step
further and deactivated the button entirely just to cover their bases. Still,
there are some exceptions to this. New York City has
a law that requires that all elevators have to have
a working closed door button, but the buttons are on
(21:41):
a delay, so it kind of defeats the purpose. And
of course other countries have their own laws about closed
door buttons, so like all the ones in England are
fully functional. For instance, it makes you wonder why our
elevators even have these if they're all deactivated, Well why
why bother with having them? Anyway, I think part of
it is like a placebo effect, like how a button
to mass just makes us feel a little bit more
(22:02):
in control of the situation, especially where when we're in
a rush or like, you know whatever. But you know,
elevators aren't the only place that we see this kind
of thing. So according to mental floss, uh and this
is what they wrote, quote, buttons place that city crosswalks
are often disabled, and the thermostats and many office buildings
are rigged so that the temperatures can't be altered even
if the numbers appeared to change. And it's a little annoying,
(22:23):
but I can also, you know, see the logic. They're like,
people can be pretty impatient and having this button to
push does help pass the time, I guess, even if
it's not actually doing anything. Yeah, I mean, who doesn't
like pushing buttons? Well, there's at least one other good
thing about elevator rides that I did want to mention,
and strangely enough, it stems from that social awkwardness that
we've been talking about. But before we get to that,
(22:45):
let's take one last quick break. Welcome back to part
time Genius. So okay, well, so, so you piqued my
interest before the break, and you've got to tell me
(23:06):
what's the upside to an awkward encounter in an elevator. Well,
in a word, the upside is serendipity. I mean that
the nature of the experience encourages these these sort of
chance developments, and sometimes they turn out to be really
good ones. And you never quite know what will happen
in an elevator. And so by being squeezed into this
(23:26):
small space with a stranger, even for a brief moment,
we're forced to think about and respond to somebody else's existence,
and that's something we don't have to do very often
outside of the elevator. Is that true, because it feels
like I interact with strangers in public spaces all the time,
like if I go to a restaurant or if I'm
in a checkoutline. Well, that's true, but in those cases,
(23:46):
the interactions are are pretty predetermined. If you think about it,
like you know that you'll be interacting with a waiter
or a cashier or whoever it may be, and you
know what to expect when you do, Like you'll talk
about food options or how much something caused. But apart
from small, intentional encounters like that, most of us are
actually pretty isolated in public spaces. You know, we're we're
(24:08):
either in our cars or at our desk, or maybe
you're out and about and you know, and you see people,
but our eyes are sort of glued to our phone
screens and all of that acts as a barrier between
us and these unprescribed interactions. But in an elevator, all
bets are off, Like you never know who's going to
step in that box with you or what they might
(24:29):
say or do when they're in there. And so that's
a good thing, I mean, at least in theory that
that uncertainty is probably where a good deal of the
awkwardness stems from. But it's also the catalyst for some
lucky breaks. So think about how many romantic comedies you've
seen where somebody stumbles into their soul made in an elevator,
or how many success stories started with an elevator pitch
(24:49):
to a CEO who couldn't get away because it right
there in this box with you, and it's called elevator exactly.
And you know, if that still doesn't convince you that
the potential awkwardness is worth it, take it from science.
So researchers have long looked to elevators for insight into
all kinds of social behavior, like how smiling improves our
willingness to stand near strangers, or how standing in the
(25:11):
back is a power play because it lets you observe
all the other passengers. So elevators or this fertile environment
for experimentation, and that's exactly because they force us out
of our comfort zones. That's really interesting. I have thought
about like elevator experiments and like you know, the one
where you're facing the opposite way or whatever, but I
didn't realize that there's such a smart place to like,
(25:32):
you know, investigate interactions. It does make me think, though,
like you know, they're these new fangled elevators that with
these new inventions, and and it makes you wonder about
how society will interact after that. And why do you
say that, Well, I don't know if you well, I'm
sure you've seen these. Actually there's this thing called destination dispatch,
and it's basically a way to group together passengers who
(25:54):
have similar destinations. It's not like the current system where
you step into an elevator and then request the floor
you want from inside the elevator. Instead, you select the
floor outside from this touchscreen in the lobby, and then
you're directed to an elevator car that's headed in your direction. Yeah,
I feel like we've seen these, you know, and and
a lot of the sort of newer, fancier office buildings
in New York these days. Yeah, cut Conny NaSTA is
(26:15):
one example. But you know, the system is obviously meant
to cut down on wasted time and energy, but from
what you've been saying, like it sounds like it might
cut down on that serendipity as well. If everyone is
bound for the same floor, it's it's a lot less
likely that a mail room clerk has that opportunity to
bump into the executive who who you know, might implement
or be influenced by their idea. I mean that is
(26:37):
kind of a bummer, unless, of course, you're someone who
is just tired of being accosted by mail clerks. I mean,
it's a it's a big problem these days, Mega, But
I don't want to give the impression that the elevator's
best days are behind, and in fact, there are some
new advancements that I'm actually looking forward to checking out myself,
which feels strange to say about elevators, but but it's true.
So just to think about some examples here. You know,
(26:59):
a company in Germany has been working on a new
kind of elevator that moves up and down the rails
using this magnetic levitation system instead of cables. And so
not only would this improve efficiency by allowing multiple cars
to operate in the same shaft, since you know, they
no longer need their own cables, it would also greatly
reduce the amount of energy it takes to run them.
(27:21):
And if none of that is a hook enough for you,
consider this. A traditional elevator can only move up and
down along the axis of its cable, but a mag
lev elevator isn't restricted by cables, which means it can
also move horizontally as well as vertically. So you could
build this complete loop inside of building and even have
elevators moved between shafts in order to find like the
(27:44):
fastest route to where they needed to be that's fascinating.
So it's basically like real world wonkovators. Yeah, pretty much,
And it might still be a while before we can
travel like Willy Wonka, but scientists are hard at work
on it. I'm pretty sure of this. Well, I'm definitely
looking forward to that one. But before we head out,
why don't we do the fact off? So, did you
(28:12):
know it's illegal to p and an elevator in Singapore?
I mean, I assume it's illegal to pe in an
elevator in in Singapore. Yeah, okay, well you're you're pretty smart,
I know, but everybody might not know that. But there's
more to it. So elevators there come equipped with a
urine detection device, so they're taking this to another level.
So no pun intended there. So if you do p,
(28:33):
it sets off an alarm and the doors slam shut
and then you just have to wait there and shame
until the police arrive to ticket you. I've got to
be honest, like, I know they go overboard with a
lot of things, but I do actually kind of find
this amazing. I really hope they come up with a
contraption to do that at their pools too, Like all
of a sudden it's like in all the water drains
(28:55):
out and then you're just standing there speaking of bathrooms.
Did you know that Japan is actually considering putting toilets
and running water in their elevators. While that sounds like
an unnecessary luxury, there's actually a reason for it. The
country has a ton of earthquakes and when that happens,
the elevators just get stuck. So it's to offer a
little bit of relief and dignity and those like hours
(29:17):
that you might be stuck in an elevator. That actually,
when you first said it, it was confusing, But you
know what, that that actually does make a lot of sense,
and that's that's thoughtful to do that, all right. So
here's one I I love. So during the French Resistance,
the French severed the cables to the Eiffel Tower elevator
so that Hitler wouldn't take a photo op at the
top of it. Apparently the idea of climbing over stairs
(29:39):
was just enough to keep him away. That's crazy. Do
you know. There's a subculture of elevator enthusiasts and it
is really really sweet. It's often people on the autism
spectrum and they bond over their love of elevators. So
they filmed the buttons. They capture how the motor sound
and were They document their rides on pretty normal elevators
and sometimes it's near rated and sometimes it isn't. But
(30:01):
Slate did an article on this and the author wrote, quote,
while I've never found my journeys in real life elevators
to be particularly therapeutic, I find these videos very soothing.
I could see that. That's pretty neat. All right, So
you've heard of the Burj Khalifa. You know that's a
hundred and sixty stories, like eight hundred and thirty meters tall.
I think, yeah, that's the first time I've ever measured
(30:23):
something in meters, but I've ever had to convert that.
So what We'll let Charles or one of the listeners
waigh in and give us that fact. So all right,
so get this. Apparently it's so tall that you can
watch the same sunset or sun rise in the same day,
like you watch it from the ground, and then you
take their super fast elevator to the top of the
building and you can actually catch it again. Oh man,
(30:46):
that is unbelievable. Do you remember when we went to
go see that eclipse in Nashville. Yeah, of course. I
remember thinking like I wasn't that interested in the phenomena,
and then I saw it. It It was so beautiful, and
I like immediately wanted jet forward and see it again.
You know, like I feel like that that kind of
has that same feel. Oh, totally. That's a great fact.
I'm gonna give you today's trophy, you know what, I'll
take it. I feel like it's been a little while,
so this this feel is really good. All right. Well,
(31:08):
thanks to all of our listeners out there for tuning in.
We know how hard it is to be stuck in
your home, so thank you for inviting us in with you.
That's gonna do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango,
Gabe and Lull. Take care. We'll be back soon with
another episode. Part Time Genius is a production of I
(31:36):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite show.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
I Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So I heard
this fact yesterday that a lot of buildings in New
York lie about how tall they are. The buildings are
lying about how tall they are. Well, maybe it's the builders,
(00:23):
but they exaggerate about their buildings. So you know how
guys have this reputation for lying about their height. Right
of course, so in New York City builders will lie
about how tall their buildings are to attract a certain clientele,
which is weird to me, and people just buy it.
I guess they do because the way they trick people
is with the elevators. Unless you're gonna count each and
every floor, the only way you're going to interact with
(00:44):
all the floors is through the buttons on the elevators. Right,
Some of this tends to be innocent. Some builders skipped
the thirteenth floor because they're superstitious, so you get someone
talking about like a fifteen story building when it's only
fourteen stories. But other builders love the grandeur. The first
example that comes up when you google this phenomena is
Trump Tower, though the owner and his family supposed to
(01:04):
live on the sixty six through floor. The building is
actually ten floors shorter than that. It's only fifty eight stories.
You know. I feel like I've seen this in other
places to like when you walk past first class in
a plane and you're like, those are rows one through four,
and then you go back to where we're trying to
sit and it's immediately like the tent throw. Yeah, exactly,
it's so weird. But I'm curious in terms of the buildings,
(01:26):
like how do they hide the ten floors? It's very similar.
So the building has a huge, beautiful atrium with the
tall ceiling, but the elevators start counting from floors thirty
instead of twenty, which is the actual height. Trump Tower
also does this where it's supposed to be ninety floors,
but if you stand at the top, it's only seventy
two stories high. It's like really common phenomena. And the
way the buildings trick you is through the elevators. You know.
(01:49):
Elevators are an interesting topic, and I think there's a
lot to talk about here, from why it's so awkward
to ride an elevator with strangers, to whether the closed
door button actually does anything to most hortantly why are
all elevators named otis? This has always puzzled me. So
we've got a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Yeah,
(02:28):
he their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh Ticketer and on the other side of that
soundproof glass dress like a lift operator from the nineteen fifties,
and he's adjusting his desk chair up and down. I mean,
it's really impressive. He's actually hinted that he was looking
forward to this and he has really lived up to
(02:48):
the challenge here. That's our good pal and producer. Loll lull.
You are looking good. So Mango, what is our first
stop on this elevator tour? So actually, before we kick off,
I've got a little bit of house key thing to
tie up. In our last episode on Nine Comic Book Heroes,
we talked about this terrible character, the Red Bee, and
his secret weapon, this ridiculous train being named Michael who
(03:11):
you know, if you'll remember, he'd keep him in his
belt then unleash him on villains. But one of our
listeners on Twitter, Charles Poor, pointed out that male bees
don't sting. That's a very good point. Yeah, yeah, it
only makes Michael seem more useless. It's true. That just
makes it that much better though. So thank you so much, Charles.
If you d m me your address, I'll send you
(03:32):
a small package of honey as a thank you. But
back to elevators, and I want to go back to
a time when elevators were a little more dangerous. Yeah, so,
I know modern elevators started to take shape. I guess
it was, you know, as early as the eighteen fifties.
But were they around long before that? Like when exactly
was the first elevator made. So it kind of depends
on your definition. But if you take just the basic
(03:53):
concept of an elevator, like a machine that can lift
things vertically, then you're probably talking about a few thousand
years ago. For instance, it's possible that the Egyptians used
vertical lifts to build their pyramids, but that's still speculation.
Like the first recorded use of vertical lift that comes
from the third century b C. And this is when
the mathematician our communities built a platform that could be
(04:15):
hoisted up and down using ropes and pulleys. Now, these
early lifts obviously didn't run on electricity. Instead, they were
powered by people, animals, in some cases even water. They
also weren't used as people movers. Instead, the hoists were
mostly used to lift building materials or water jugs. And
it wasn't until a few centuries later that primitive elevators
were finally used to transport living creatures. This was in
(04:37):
the first century CE, when Roman gladiators and wild animals
would ride the lifts from the lower levels up to
the floor of the colisseum. Right, So even then, most
people probably wouldn't have trusted their lives to an elevator,
I would assume at least at that point. And they
were considered safe enough though for enslaved combatants and lions
or whatever. But the average citizen would have probably chosen
(04:58):
the stairs still, definitely, and and there was just still
too much room for error when you had, you know,
people or donkeys pulling the ropes. People didn't really start
using elevators by choice until more reliable systems were developed.
For instance, in UH seventeen forty three, King Louis the
fifteenth had one of the earliest passenger elevators installed in
the palace at Versailles. He was a ladies man and
(05:18):
the private elevator was an easy way for his mistress
to visit him in secret, and he referred to it
as a flying chair. Basically, all you have to do
to operate it was to pull a cord connected to
a police system and from their gravity and a series
of counterweights would do the rest. Pretty clever, I guess, yeah.
And and in the early eighteen hundred, steam actually gets incorporated,
and this ends up being super helpful because steam powered
(05:41):
lifts were able to move much heavier loads. You're thinking
about things like cold or lumber and steel um and
suddenly this could all be raised hundreds of feet in
a matter of seconds. This new capacity led to major
booms and construction and mining and and it's actually a
big part of what made the Industrial revolution so transformative.
But steam powered elevator still had one major flaw. They
(06:03):
were really dangerous, like super dangerous, and and if a
rope snap, the lift would just plummet. And unfortunately, that
happened pretty often all through the first half of the
nineteenth century, right And it's around that halfway point that
an entrepreneur, an inventor named elisha Otis enters the picture.
We mentioned that name earlier, and he got into the
elevator game in eighteen fifty two while working on a
(06:25):
project for a company that made bed frames. So the
client needed a way to move heavy manufacturing equipment to
the second floor of its factory. There was only one problem, though,
and that was that the equipment they were moving was
so heavy that the lifting cables couldn't bear the weight
for all that long. So there was this constant risk
that the cables were going to snap, and if that happened,
there would be nothing to stop the elevator from plunging
(06:47):
straight to the ground floor. So Otis's solution to the
problem was to develop the world's first safety device for elevators.
It was basically like a brake system that functioned as
a fail safe for the lift. So if the cable
should break, the loss of tension would trigger the release
of these levers on either side of the elevator car,
and then these levers would lock and do these series
(07:09):
of grooves that were along the vertical rails of the elevator,
and that would sort of arrest the fall and and
lock the car in place. So it's pretty innovative. That's
pretty amazing. So so I just want to make sure
I have this straight. Like, the vertical rails were already
part of the elevator design, right, Like, they just didn't
have that like locking system built into them until Otis
came along. Yeah, that's right. I mean all of the
elevators of the era were braced on either side by
(07:31):
these vertical rails that helped keep the car steady as
it was going up or down. And so those rails
were completely smooth, though, so if a cable broke, the
car would just slide right down the rails and free fall,
which would obviously be dangerous and terrifying. And so Otis's
breakthrough was to carve grooves into the rails and create
kind of a saw toothed ratchet system that would act
(07:53):
as these brakes. Industrial companies recognized the merits of the
new breaking system right away, and Otis quickly set to
work on, you know, filing orders for freight elevators. But
the public was still unconvinced. Was understandably because it is,
you know, such a different invention and everything, but most
people viewed elevators as these death traps, and they were
(08:14):
unlikely to be swayed from this opinion by these confusing
diagrams they were singing and all these technical explanations. So
in order to really trust such a system, people would
need to see it for themselves. And so at the
World's Fair in eighteen fifty four, Elisha Otis allowed them
to do just that. So you're saying that, like fair
goers were actually willing to get into these elevators and
(08:37):
test the brake systems. No, still not at this point.
But Otis thought about that, I mean, he anticipated that,
and so he arranged a stunt that would instead put
only one person's life on the line, and that, of course,
was his own. And so here's what happened. That You're
at the Crystal Palace Exposition Hall, and Otis constructed this
fifty foot wooden elevator. Then, with some help from none
(08:59):
other than P. T. Barnum himself, Otis gathered this crowd
and promised them this death defying stunt unlike any they
had ever seen. So the crowd is, you know, hyped
up and everything. And Otis then dramatically rides the elevator
to the very top, where he then ordered an axe
wielding assistant to cut the rope that held up the elevator.
(09:20):
The onlookers were stunned and sort of braced themselves for
this tragic scene, but thankfully it never came. And that's because,
you know, of course, to their surprise and great relief,
the platform dropped just a few inches and then came
to a complete stop. The crowd was blown away by this,
but they were also skeptical of how reliable the system
(09:40):
really was. And you know, they thought, maybe Otis just
got insanely lucky, and there was no guarantee that the
brakes would work a second time. So Otis performed the
stunt again and again and again. Every hour of the
day that the fair was open. He performed this stunt,
and in this way, little by little, one crowd at
a time, him Otis won over the public and convinced
(10:02):
them that elevators were at long last safe to ride.
That is such an amazing stunt, Like, it's such an
amazing pr thing that all you're basically doing is riding
an elevator. Pretty amazing. But you know, I'm guessing this
was a turning point for Otis, Like I read that
the first passenger elevator to use his brake system was
installed in New York in eighteen fifty seven, so it
(10:25):
was still about three years after the fair. But but
then the floodgates really open, and within sixteen years more
than two thousand passenger elevators were operating all across the country. Yeah,
there was definitely a snowball effect to all of this.
And you know, sadly Otis actually didn't live long enough
to see just how widely embraced his invention became. He
passed away in eighteen sixty one, just a few years
(10:47):
after his first elevator was installed in New York. But
his sons did carry on the family business, along with others,
and and and they worked to make improvements on that
original design, including the switch to hydraulic power and eventually,
of course, to electricity. Now, all of this innovation helps
secure the elevator's place as one of the most highly
(11:08):
traffic transport systems in the world. And that's not an exaggeration.
According to the l A Times, the world's elevators now
move the equivalent of the Earth's population every seventy two hours.
If you think about that, every three days, over seven
and a half billion people take a ride on an elevator.
That is not something I'd even comprehended. That's pretty remarkable. Yeah,
(11:30):
it's it's it's really crazy. And it's especially true of
Otis elevators, which are still going strong today. For example,
the elevators in the Eiffel Tower road to selevators, so
are the ones in the Empire, State Building, the White House,
the Vatican, the Kremlin. I mean, the list goes on
and on, and the company is now one of the
two largest elevator manufacturers in the world. And that's why
(11:51):
if you step into an elevator today, the chances are
you will find that Otis name inscribed on the walls there,
which makes a lot more sense than all the elevator
is in the world being nicknamed Otis. But uh I,
I think we should talk some more about the rapid
growth phase that elevators went through near the turn of
the twentieth century. You actually mentioned that there are a
couple thousands spread across the country by the early eighteen seventies,
(12:14):
but the majority of those were still being used in
industrial settings, and and you'd find the safety elevators in
in coal mines or construction sites, but it was still
pretty rare to see one in an office building or
apartment complex. Yeah, the average person didn't come into contact
with elevators all that often. And that finally starts to
change in the eighteen seventies, though, is business owners begin
(12:36):
adding elevators to their office buildings and and that's really
what launched the invention into its next phase, where you
start to see all the architectural and cultural impacts that
elevators have had. Yeah, I mean, it's wild to think
about how different the cities we know would look if
it weren't for elevators, Like, no skyscrapers, high rise apartments,
like all the buildings would just be a few stories tall.
(12:58):
It's funny when you look back and realized that higher
floors would you know, they used to be the least
desirable spaces in a building. Like today we connect higher
floors with a sense of luxury. They're more private, farther
removed from the noise of the streets, you know, not
to mention those birds eye view of the skyline. But
before elevators made them more accessible, those top floors were
(13:19):
seen as inconvenient like In fact, they were typically set
aside for either low rent tenants or like the in
house janitor, So how many stairs you had to climb
to get to your apartment was really kind of a
status signifier, like the fewer obviously the better, exactly, and
and and so when elevators came along, not only did
those higher floors get much more appealing and much more valuable,
(13:40):
they also got much higher. So thanks to the advent
of steel frame construction, and of course thanks to elevators,
buildings could suddenly be built much taller than before. This
basically meant that anyone who owned a building no longer
need to fight for new land to develop on, like
that's something that's always in short supply and cities. Instead
they can simply build upwards new offices, hotel rooms, retail
(14:04):
space like there's nothing but air above. So in a way,
elevators literally shaped the cities we know today. I actually
found this great quote from this guy named Patrick Karajat,
and he's the founder of the Elevator Museum in New York.
And according to him quote, if we didn't have elevators,
we would have a megalopolis, one continuous city stretching from
(14:24):
Philadelphia to Boston, because everything would be five or six
stories tall. It's interesting to think about as this choice
between a sprawling, horizontal city or is more densely clustered,
vertical one. And it reminds me this cool Boston Globe
article that talked about a kind of invisible war between
elevators and cars that's been going on for the past
(14:44):
century or so. So the ideas that you have these
two new technologies that we're basically pushing us in two
different directions. On the one side, you had cars, which
allowed people to travel horizontally, and the other you had elevators,
which of course move people vertically. And city planners had
to choose which of these new technologies they were going
to get behind, which you know, which one they were
(15:06):
going to focus on developing their cities around. And if
you looked up an American city during the last hundred years,
it's pretty obvious you know which one they picked, definitely.
But it's not like cars were left by the wayside
or any thing. Like elevators may have won the battle
to shape cities, but cars are still the you know,
transportation of choice, and suburbs where the sprawl is is
much less of an issue. Yeah, I guess in the
(15:27):
end it's it's sort of been a draw in that
sense between those two. But all right, so We've seen
how elevators have evolved over the years, and I feel
like we should check out a few things about them
that have actually stayed the same. Before we get to that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
(15:55):
Genius and we're talking about the eccentricities of elevator etiquette. Right, Magoes,
we talked about the elevator's effect on our architecture and
daily routines. Now let's talk about how elevators affected the
people who rode them, Because when you think about it,
passenger elevators really created a new kind of social situation,
like one that's strangely intimate yet impersonal at the same time.
(16:17):
It's always a little bit weird to be in an
elevator full of people, or even more weird to be
with one person. But you know, this new dynamic raised
all kinds of questions about what was proper behavior when
riding an elevator. The one hot debate, for example, was
whether a man should remove his hat while riding in
an elevator with a woman. You know, I'm sure you
(16:38):
think about this all the time and really worried about, like,
should he take his hat off as he would in
a restaurant or leave it on as he would, you know,
on a train or a bus. I mean, it's a
lot to think about. I don't think I even realize
you're supposed to leave your hat on on a bus,
but yeah, leave it on. But it's interesting because restaurants
and busses are both examples of public spaces, right, So
for elevators, it was really more about whether they were
(17:00):
a mode of transportation or just another room in the building,
albeit a moving room. So it's kind of a tough
call because both descriptions are technically a fit for that. Yeah,
it's true, and I think that was really what through people,
Like the elevator was a mode of transportation inside a building,
So which set of rules do you follow now? Unlike
riding a bus, riding an elevator brought unclear expectations for
(17:23):
social interaction, Like even if you don't know the other passengers,
you know that they live or work in the same
building as you, and so there's this sense that you
should at least acknowledge that in some way, whether by
nodding or smiling or making small talk or whatever. Right,
But we never want to be the person to make
that call, right, like everyone wants to wait for the
other person to make the first move in those situations,
(17:45):
so it always creates this I don't know, like anxiety
or tension or something. No, I don't know. I usually
just go ahead and get in and get everybody a
hub and just get that out of the way exactly.
And it feels like, now, more than a hundred and
fifty years after their invention, we still haven't gotten over
those feelings of of discomfort. It's like, despite all the
(18:05):
advances in elevator design, the one thing we can't seem
to resolve is is this inherent awkwardness of taking this
short ride with other strangers. So I am curious if
you know what causes that, like, like what makes it
feel so awkward? Yeah, I was definitely curious about this.
This was actually one of the first things we were
looking into this week, and it turns out there are
(18:25):
a few reasons. So one deals with something that international
tourists here a lot, which is that we Americans love
our personal space. So typically we like to keep at
least in arm's length of distance between us and other people,
and the elevator is one of the rare places where
that's not always possible, and so that's you know, what
brings on some of that awkwardness. Now, the other thing
(18:47):
that was is a bit more universal, and that's that
most of us are at least a little bit anxious
of being trapped in a steel box, which may sound obvious,
and and not only that you're dangling from the roof
by by this cable. And that's despite the fact that
elevators are actually super safe. In fact, they are one
of the safest ways to travel period. So for example,
(19:10):
about people die taking the stairs each year, which is
just a really bizarre fact. But according to Consumer Watch,
there are only about twenty seven elevator related deaths per
year worldwide. Not gonna be honest, I wouldn't even know
it was it was that much. And considering that elevators
make roughly eighteen billion trips each year according to the
(19:30):
l A Times, that works out to an exceptionally low
fatality rate. It's about a point zero zero zero zero
zero zero one five per trip. So you know, the
awkwardness you feel in an elevator is very real, but
the sense of danger not so much. Well, I mean
that definitely tracts with what I learned this week about
(19:52):
the origin of elevator music. So I I always assumed
that the music was there to calm people's nerves and
make them less worried about going, you know, something going wrong.
But according to elevator historians, of which there are actually
a great many, I found out this week elevator music
was really invented to help alleviate boredom and to fill
that awkward silence that comes from riding a lift with strangers.
(20:14):
I do kind of like the awkward silence. Was just assume, like,
of course people will choose that over small talk with
a stranger, you know, I know, and I guess building
owners were like, we know, you aren't going to talk
to each other. So here's some music to fill that
void where where I guess the human interaction is supposed
to go. It's too bad it doesn't doesn't really work.
I mean reality, there is no escaping the awkward, or
(20:34):
at least not until you hit the closed door button
really quickly when you see a stranger coming, just to
avoid the whole situation entirely. So here's the thing I
learned about that. You know, it turns out that closing
the elevator door on a stranger doesn't really work, and
that's because the closed door button and most American elevators
is ineffective. It actually, I guess, sort of makes sense.
I always suspected that was the case. But is this
(20:56):
by design or did the buttons just malfunction a lot,
or like, what what's happening? It is by design, so
the reason why is pretty interesting. Apparently, when the Americans
with Disabilities Act was first passed, it included a list
of requirements for elevators, and these are things like raised buttons,
braille signs, and another requirement was that elevator doors had
to remain open for at least three seconds, and that
(21:18):
way someone with the disability would have enough time to
get inside before the doors closed. Some manufacturers complied with
the law by ensuring that the closed door buttons don't
cut that time short, but others just want to step
further and deactivated the button entirely just to cover their bases. Still,
there are some exceptions to this. New York City has
a law that requires that all elevators have to have
a working closed door button, but the buttons are on
(21:41):
a delay, so it kind of defeats the purpose. And
of course other countries have their own laws about closed
door buttons, so like all the ones in England are
fully functional. For instance, it makes you wonder why our
elevators even have these if they're all deactivated, Well why
why bother with having them? Anyway, I think part of
it is like a placebo effect, like how a button
to mass just makes us feel a little bit more
(22:02):
in control of the situation, especially where when we're in
a rush or like, you know whatever. But you know,
elevators aren't the only place that we see this kind
of thing. So according to mental floss, uh and this
is what they wrote, quote, buttons place that city crosswalks
are often disabled, and the thermostats and many office buildings
are rigged so that the temperatures can't be altered even
if the numbers appeared to change. And it's a little annoying,
(22:23):
but I can also, you know, see the logic. They're like,
people can be pretty impatient and having this button to
push does help pass the time, I guess, even if
it's not actually doing anything. Yeah, I mean, who doesn't
like pushing buttons? Well, there's at least one other good
thing about elevator rides that I did want to mention,
and strangely enough, it stems from that social awkwardness that
we've been talking about. But before we get to that,
(22:45):
let's take one last quick break. Welcome back to part
time Genius. So okay, well, so, so you piqued my
interest before the break, and you've got to tell me
(23:06):
what's the upside to an awkward encounter in an elevator. Well,
in a word, the upside is serendipity. I mean that
the nature of the experience encourages these these sort of
chance developments, and sometimes they turn out to be really
good ones. And you never quite know what will happen
in an elevator. And so by being squeezed into this
(23:26):
small space with a stranger, even for a brief moment,
we're forced to think about and respond to somebody else's existence,
and that's something we don't have to do very often
outside of the elevator. Is that true, because it feels
like I interact with strangers in public spaces all the time,
like if I go to a restaurant or if I'm
in a checkoutline. Well, that's true, but in those cases,
(23:46):
the interactions are are pretty predetermined. If you think about it,
like you know that you'll be interacting with a waiter
or a cashier or whoever it may be, and you
know what to expect when you do, Like you'll talk
about food options or how much something caused. But apart
from small, intentional encounters like that, most of us are
actually pretty isolated in public spaces. You know, we're we're
(24:08):
either in our cars or at our desk, or maybe
you're out and about and you know, and you see people,
but our eyes are sort of glued to our phone
screens and all of that acts as a barrier between
us and these unprescribed interactions. But in an elevator, all
bets are off, Like you never know who's going to
step in that box with you or what they might
(24:29):
say or do when they're in there. And so that's
a good thing, I mean, at least in theory that
that uncertainty is probably where a good deal of the
awkwardness stems from. But it's also the catalyst for some
lucky breaks. So think about how many romantic comedies you've
seen where somebody stumbles into their soul made in an elevator,
or how many success stories started with an elevator pitch
(24:49):
to a CEO who couldn't get away because it right
there in this box with you, and it's called elevator exactly.
And you know, if that still doesn't convince you that
the potential awkwardness is worth it, take it from science.
So researchers have long looked to elevators for insight into
all kinds of social behavior, like how smiling improves our
willingness to stand near strangers, or how standing in the
(25:11):
back is a power play because it lets you observe
all the other passengers. So elevators or this fertile environment
for experimentation, and that's exactly because they force us out
of our comfort zones. That's really interesting. I have thought
about like elevator experiments and like you know, the one
where you're facing the opposite way or whatever, but I
didn't realize that there's such a smart place to like,
(25:32):
you know, investigate interactions. It does make me think, though,
like you know, they're these new fangled elevators that with
these new inventions, and and it makes you wonder about
how society will interact after that. And why do you
say that, Well, I don't know if you well, I'm
sure you've seen these. Actually there's this thing called destination dispatch,
and it's basically a way to group together passengers who
(25:54):
have similar destinations. It's not like the current system where
you step into an elevator and then request the floor
you want from inside the elevator. Instead, you select the
floor outside from this touchscreen in the lobby, and then
you're directed to an elevator car that's headed in your direction. Yeah,
I feel like we've seen these, you know, and and
a lot of the sort of newer, fancier office buildings
in New York these days. Yeah, cut Conny NaSTA is
(26:15):
one example. But you know, the system is obviously meant
to cut down on wasted time and energy, but from
what you've been saying, like it sounds like it might
cut down on that serendipity as well. If everyone is
bound for the same floor, it's it's a lot less
likely that a mail room clerk has that opportunity to
bump into the executive who who you know, might implement
or be influenced by their idea. I mean that is
(26:37):
kind of a bummer, unless, of course, you're someone who
is just tired of being accosted by mail clerks. I mean,
it's a it's a big problem these days, Mega, But
I don't want to give the impression that the elevator's
best days are behind, and in fact, there are some
new advancements that I'm actually looking forward to checking out myself,
which feels strange to say about elevators, but but it's true.
So just to think about some examples here. You know,
(26:59):
a company in Germany has been working on a new
kind of elevator that moves up and down the rails
using this magnetic levitation system instead of cables. And so
not only would this improve efficiency by allowing multiple cars
to operate in the same shaft, since you know, they
no longer need their own cables, it would also greatly
reduce the amount of energy it takes to run them.
(27:21):
And if none of that is a hook enough for you,
consider this. A traditional elevator can only move up and
down along the axis of its cable, but a mag
lev elevator isn't restricted by cables, which means it can
also move horizontally as well as vertically. So you could
build this complete loop inside of building and even have
elevators moved between shafts in order to find like the
(27:44):
fastest route to where they needed to be that's fascinating.
So it's basically like real world wonkovators. Yeah, pretty much,
And it might still be a while before we can
travel like Willy Wonka, but scientists are hard at work
on it. I'm pretty sure of this. Well, I'm definitely
looking forward to that one. But before we head out,
why don't we do the fact off? So, did you
(28:12):
know it's illegal to p and an elevator in Singapore?
I mean, I assume it's illegal to pe in an
elevator in in Singapore. Yeah, okay, well you're you're pretty smart,
I know, but everybody might not know that. But there's
more to it. So elevators there come equipped with a
urine detection device, so they're taking this to another level.
So no pun intended there. So if you do p,
(28:33):
it sets off an alarm and the doors slam shut
and then you just have to wait there and shame
until the police arrive to ticket you. I've got to
be honest, like, I know they go overboard with a
lot of things, but I do actually kind of find
this amazing. I really hope they come up with a
contraption to do that at their pools too, Like all
of a sudden it's like in all the water drains
(28:55):
out and then you're just standing there speaking of bathrooms.
Did you know that Japan is actually considering putting toilets
and running water in their elevators. While that sounds like
an unnecessary luxury, there's actually a reason for it. The
country has a ton of earthquakes and when that happens,
the elevators just get stuck. So it's to offer a
little bit of relief and dignity and those like hours
(29:17):
that you might be stuck in an elevator. That actually,
when you first said it, it was confusing, But you
know what, that that actually does make a lot of sense,
and that's that's thoughtful to do that, all right. So
here's one I I love. So during the French Resistance,
the French severed the cables to the Eiffel Tower elevator
so that Hitler wouldn't take a photo op at the
top of it. Apparently the idea of climbing over stairs
(29:39):
was just enough to keep him away. That's crazy. Do
you know. There's a subculture of elevator enthusiasts and it
is really really sweet. It's often people on the autism
spectrum and they bond over their love of elevators. So
they filmed the buttons. They capture how the motor sound
and were They document their rides on pretty normal elevators
and sometimes it's near rated and sometimes it isn't. But
(30:01):
Slate did an article on this and the author wrote, quote,
while I've never found my journeys in real life elevators
to be particularly therapeutic, I find these videos very soothing.
I could see that. That's pretty neat. All right, So
you've heard of the Burj Khalifa. You know that's a
hundred and sixty stories, like eight hundred and thirty meters tall.
I think, yeah, that's the first time I've ever measured
(30:23):
something in meters, but I've ever had to convert that.
So what We'll let Charles or one of the listeners
waigh in and give us that fact. So all right,
so get this. Apparently it's so tall that you can
watch the same sunset or sun rise in the same day,
like you watch it from the ground, and then you
take their super fast elevator to the top of the
building and you can actually catch it again. Oh man,
(30:46):
that is unbelievable. Do you remember when we went to
go see that eclipse in Nashville. Yeah, of course. I
remember thinking like I wasn't that interested in the phenomena,
and then I saw it. It It was so beautiful, and
I like immediately wanted jet forward and see it again.
You know, like I feel like that that kind of
has that same feel. Oh, totally. That's a great fact.
I'm gonna give you today's trophy, you know what, I'll
take it. I feel like it's been a little while,
so this this feel is really good. All right. Well,
(31:08):
thanks to all of our listeners out there for tuning in.
We know how hard it is to be stuck in
your home, so thank you for inviting us in with you.
That's gonna do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango,
Gabe and Lull. Take care. We'll be back soon with
another episode. Part Time Genius is a production of I
(31:36):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite show.
Part-Time Genius News
Host
Will and Mango
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