April 22, 2025 • 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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio Guess
What Will?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I heard this fact yesterday that a lot of
buildings in New York lie about how tall they are.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The buildings are lying about how tall they are.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, maybe it's the builders, 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 client tell 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 going to count each and every floor, the only
(00:43):
way you're going to interact with all the floors is
through the buttons on the elevators. Right, Yeah, some of
this tends to be innocent. Some builders skip 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 live on
(01:04):
the sixty six through sixty eighth floor. The building is
actually ten floors shorter than that. It's only fifty eight stories.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know. I feel like I've seen this in other
places too, 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 tenth throw. Yeah, exactly,
It's so weird. But I'm curious in terms of the buildings,
like how do they hide the ten floors?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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 a really common phenomena,
and the way the buildings trick you is through the elevators.
You know.
Speaker 2 (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 importantly, why are
all elevators named otis? This has always puzzled me. So
we've got a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Hey
(02:28):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh hot ticketter and on the other side of that
soundproof glass dressed 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
the challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's our good pal and producer. Loll lull. You are
looking good. So Mango, what is our first stop on
this elevator tour?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So, actually, before we kick off, I've got a little
bit 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 bee named Michael who you know, if you'll remember,
he'd keep him in his belt and unleash him on villains.
But one of our listeners on Twitter, Charles Porr, pointed
(03:18):
out that male bees don't sting.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's a very good point.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, it only makes Michael seem more useless.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That just makes it that much better though. So thank
you so much, Charles. If you DM me your address,
I'll send you 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.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
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 concepts 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
(04:02):
Egyptians used vertical lifts to build their pyramids, but that's
still speculation. Like the first recorded use of a vertical
lift that comes from the third century BCE, and this
is when the mathematician Archimedes built a platform that could
be hoisted up and down using ropes and pulleys. Now,
these early lifts obviously didn't run on electricity. Instead, they
(04:22):
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 the first century CE, when Roman gladiators and wild
animals would ride the lifts from the lower levels up
(04:43):
to the floor of the coliseum. 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
the stairs.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Still, definitely, 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
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 the private elevator was
(05:20):
an easy way for his mistress to visit him in secret,
and he referred to it as a flying chair. Basically,
all you had to do to operate it was to
pull a cord connected to a pulley system and from
their gravity and a series of counterweights would do the rest.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's a pretty clever I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah. And in the early eighteen hundred, steam actually gets incorporated,
and this ends up being super helpful because steam powered
lifts were able to move much heavier loads. You're thinking
about things like coal or lumber and steel, 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 it's actually a big part
(05:55):
of what made the Industrial Revolution so transformative. Steam powered
elevator still had one major flaw. They were really dangerous,
like super dangerous, and if a rope snapped, the lift
would just plummet, and unfortunately, that happened pretty often all
through the first half of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Right And it's around that halfway point that an entrepreneur
and 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 project for
a company that made bedframes. So the client needed a
way to move heavy manufacturing equipment to the second floor
of its factory. It was only one problem, though, and
(06:34):
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
straight to the ground floor. So Otis's solution to the
problem was to develop the world's first safety device for elevators.
(06:55):
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
of grooves that were along the vertical rails of the elevator,
and that would sort of arrest the fall and lock
(07:15):
the car in place.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So it's pretty innovative, that's pretty amazing. 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.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, that's right. I mean all of the elevators of
the era were braced on either side by these vertical
rails that help 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 in free fall, which would obviously
be dangerous and terrifying. And so Otis's breakthrough was to
(07:47):
carve grooves into the rails and create kind of a
saw toothed ratchet system that would act as these brakes.
Industrial companies recognize the merits of the new braking system
right away, and Otis quickly set to work on filing
orders for freight elevators. But the public was still unconvinced,
understandably because it is such a different invention and everything,
(08:10):
but most people viewed elevators as these death traps, and
they were 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, Elishah Otis allowed
them to do just that.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
So you're saying that, like fairgoers were actually willing to
get into these elevators and test the brake systems.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
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. You're at the Crystal Palace exposition Hall,
and Otis constructed this fifty foot wooden elevator. Then, with
(08:58):
some help from none other than Pace 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 in 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. The onlookers were stunned and sort
(09:22):
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 really was, and you know,
they thought, maybe Otis just got insanely lucky, and there
(09:44):
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, Otis won over the public
and convinced them that elevators were at long last safe
(10:05):
to ride.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That is such an amazing stunt, Like it's such an
amazing pr thing that all you're basically doing is riding
an elevator.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
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 was still about three
years after the fair, But then the floodgates really open,
and within sixteen years, more than two thousand passenger elevators
were operating all across the country.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
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
after his first elevator was installed in New York. But
his sons did carry on the family business along with others,
and they worked to make improvements on that original design,
(10:58):
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 traffic transport
systems in the world. And that's not an exaggeration. According
to the La Times, the world's elevators now move the
equivalent of the Earth's population every seventy two hours. Wow.
(11:20):
If you think about that, every three days, over seven
and a half billion people take a ride on an elevator.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
That is not something I'd even comprehended. That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, 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 Otis elevators. 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 if you
(11:51):
step into an elevator today, the chances are you will
find that Otis name inscribed on the walls.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
There, which makes a lot more sense than all the
elevator in the world being nicknamed Otis. But 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 were a couple thousands spread
across the country by the early eighteen seventies, but the
majority of those were still being used in industrial settings,
(12:18):
and you'd find the safety elevators in coal mines or
construction sites, but it was still pretty rare to see
one in an office building or apartment complex.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
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, as business owners begin adding elevators
to their office buildings, 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.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, 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 bird's eye view of the skyline.
But before elevators made them more accessible, those top floors
(13:19):
were 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.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Better, exactly, and so when elevators came along, not only
did those higher floors get much more appealing and much
more valuable, 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 needed to fight for new land to develop on,
(13:56):
like that's something that's always in short supply in cities. Instead,
they could simply build upwards new offices, hotel rooms, retail
space like there's nothing but air above. So in a way,
elevators literally shape 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.
(14:17):
And according to him, quote, if we didn't have elevators,
we would have a megalopolis, one continuous city stretching from
Philadelphia to Boston, because everything would be five or six
stories tall.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about it as this choice
between a sprawling horizontal city or this more densely clustered,
vertical one, And it reminds me of 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 century or so. So the idea is that you
have these two new technologies that were basically pushing us
(14:50):
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 moved 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 going to focus on developing their cities around.
And if you looked up in an American city during
(15:10):
the last one hundred years, it's pretty obvious you know
which one they.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Picked, definitely. But it's not like cars were left by
the wayside or anything like. Elevators may have won the
battle to shape cities, but cars are still the you know,
transportation of choice in suburbs where the sprawl is much
less of an issue.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, I guess in the end, 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. But
before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
(15:54):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the eccentricities of elevator etiquette. 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
(16:16):
yet impersonal at the same time. 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.
(16:37):
You know, I'm sure you think about this all the
time and really worry 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.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
About I don't think I even realized you're supposed to
leave your hat.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
On a bus, but yeah, leave it on.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
But it's interesting because restaurants and buses are both examples
of public spaces, right, So for elevators, it was really
more about whether they were a mode of transportation or
just another room in a building, albeit a moving room.
So it's kind of a tough call because both descriptions
are technically a fit for that.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
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 social interaction, Like even if you don't know the
other passengers, you know that they live or work in
(17:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
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 situation.
So it always creates this I don't know like anxiety
or tension or something.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
No, I don't know. I usually just go ahead and
get in and get everybody a hug, and just I
get that out of the way exactly. And it feels like, now,
more than one hundred and fifty years after their invention,
we still haven't gotten over those feelings of discomfort. It's like,
despite all the advances in elevator design, the one thing
we can't seem to resolve is this inherent awkwardness of
(18:11):
taking this short ride with other strangers.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So I am curious if you know what causes that,
like what makes it feel so awkward?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
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 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 an arm's length
of distance between us and other people, and the elevator
(18:40):
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 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 not only
that you're dangling from the roof by this cable. And
(19:01):
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, about nineteen hundred people die
taking the stairs each year, which is just a really
bizarre fact, but according to Consumer Watch, they were only
about twenty seven elevator related deaths per year worldwide. Now,
(19:22):
I gonna be honest, I wouldn't even known it was
that much. And considering that elevators make roughly eighteen billion
trips each year according to the La Times, that works
out to an exceptionally low fatality rate. It's about a
point zero zero zero zero zero zero one five percent
per trip. So you know, the awkwardness you feel in
(19:44):
an elevator is very real, but the sense of danger
not so much.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, I mean that definitely tracks with what I learned
this week about the origin of elevator music. So I'd
always assume 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
(20:10):
to fill that awkward silence that comes from riding a
lift with strangers.
Speaker 2 (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 what.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
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 I guess the human interaction
is supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's too bad it doesn't really work. I mean, in reality,
there is no escaping the awkward, or 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.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It actually, I guess sort of makes sense I always
suspected that was the case. But is this by design
or did the buttons just malfunction a lot, or like
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It is by design, so the reason why is pretty interesting. Apparently,
when the Americans with Disabilities Act was first passed in
nineteen ninety, 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 way someone with
the disability would have enough time to get inside before
(21:20):
the door's 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 deactivate 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 a delay,
(21:41):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
For instance, I mean it makes me wonder why elevators
even have these if they're all deactivated, why bother with
having them?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Anyway, I think part of it is like a placebo effect,
like a button to mass just makes us feel a
little bit more 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,
and this is what they wrote, quote, buttons placed at
city crosswalks are often disabled, and the thermostats and many
(22:17):
office buildings are rigged so that the temperatures can't be
altered even if the numbers appear to change.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean, it's a little annoying, but I can also,
you know, see the logic there, 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.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, I mean, who doesn't like pushing buttons?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, there's at least one other good thing about elevator
rides that I did want to mention it, And strangely enough,
it stems from that social awkwardness that we've been talking about.
But before we get to that, let's take one last
quick break.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Welcome back to part time Genius. So okay, well, so
you've peaked my interest before the break, and you've got
to tell me what's the upside to an awkward encounter
in an elevator.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
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 small space with a stranger, even for a brief moment,
we're forced to think about and respond to somebody else's existence,
(23:33):
and that's something we don't have to do very often
outside of the elevator.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
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 checkout line.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well that's true, but in those cases, the interactions 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 costs. But apart from small, intentional
encounters like that, most of us are actually pretty isolated
(24:06):
in public spaces. You know, we're 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
(24:26):
box with you or what they might 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 to a
(24:49):
CEO who couldn't get away because they're right there in
this box with you, and it's called 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 look 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 back is a
(25:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
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 they're
such a smart place to, like, you know, investigate interactions.
It does make me think, though, like you know, there
are these new fangled elevators that with these new inventions,
and it makes you wonder about how society will interact
(25:43):
after that.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And why do you say that, Well, I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
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 have similar destinations. It's not like
the current system where you step into an elevator and
then request the floor you want in 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
(26:07):
in your direction.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah. I feel like we've seen these, you know, and
a lot of the sort of new or fancier office
buildings in New York these days.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, I got Kanye NaSTA is 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 a lot less likely that a mailroom clerk has
that opportunity to bump into the executive who who you know,
might implement or be influenced by their idea.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I mean that is 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 big problem these days, mego.
But I don't want to give the impression that the
elevator's best days are behind it. 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
it's true. So just to think about some examples here.
(26:59):
You know, 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 move between shafts in order to find like the
(27:44):
fastest route to where they needed to be.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That's fascinating. So it's basically like real world wonkavators.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well, I'm definitely looking forward to that one. But before
we head out, why don't we do the fact off?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So, did you know it's illegal to pee in an
elevator in Singapore?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I mean, I assume it's illegal to pee in an
elevator in Singapore?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, okay, well 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 pee, 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
(28:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I really hope they come up with a contraption to
do that at their pools too, Like all of a sudden,
it's like cover close you in.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All the water drains out and then you're just standing there.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
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 in
those hours that you might be stuck in an elevator.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That actually, when you first said it, it was confusing, But
you know what, that actually does make a lot of sense,
and that's thoughtful to do that, all right. So here's
one 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 fifteen hundred stairs was
(29:39):
just enough to keep him away. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
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 motors
sound and were They document their rides on pretty normal
elevators and sometimes it's and sometimes it isn't. But Slate
did an article on this, and the author wrote, quote,
(30:04):
while I have never found my journeys in real life
elevators to be particularly therapeutic, I find these videos very soothing.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I could see that that's pretty neat all Right, So
you've heard of the Burj Khalifa. You know that's one
hundred and sixty stories, like eight hundred and thirty meters tall.
I think passive. Yeah, that's the first time I've ever
measured something in meters. But I've got to convert that.
So what We'll let Charles are one of the listeners,
weigh in and give us that fact. So all right,
So get this. Apparently it's so tall that you can
(30:32):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Oh man, 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 and it was so beautiful,
and I like immediately wanted to jet forward and see
it again. You know, like, I feel like that that
kind of has that same feel.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Oh totally.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
That's a great fact. I'm going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know what, I'll take it. I feel like it's
been a little while, so this feels really good. All right. Well,
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 going to 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
(31:36):
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite show.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio Guess
What Will?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I heard this fact yesterday that a lot of
buildings in New York lie about how tall they are.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The buildings are lying about how tall they are.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, maybe it's the builders, 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 client tell 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 going to count each and every floor, the only
(00:43):
way you're going to interact with all the floors is
through the buttons on the elevators. Right, Yeah, some of
this tends to be innocent. Some builders skip 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 live on
(01:04):
the sixty six through sixty eighth floor. The building is
actually ten floors shorter than that. It's only fifty eight stories.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know. I feel like I've seen this in other
places too, 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 tenth throw. Yeah, exactly,
It's so weird. But I'm curious in terms of the buildings,
like how do they hide the ten floors?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
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 a really common phenomena,
and the way the buildings trick you is through the elevators.
You know.
Speaker 2 (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 importantly, why are
all elevators named otis? This has always puzzled me. So
we've got a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Hey
(02:28):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh hot ticketter and on the other side of that
soundproof glass dressed 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
the challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's our good pal and producer. Loll lull. You are
looking good. So Mango, what is our first stop on
this elevator tour?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So, actually, before we kick off, I've got a little
bit 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 bee named Michael who you know, if you'll remember,
he'd keep him in his belt and unleash him on villains.
But one of our listeners on Twitter, Charles Porr, pointed
(03:18):
out that male bees don't sting.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's a very good point.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, it only makes Michael seem more useless.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That just makes it that much better though. So thank
you so much, Charles. If you DM me your address,
I'll send you 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.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
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 concepts 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
(04:02):
Egyptians used vertical lifts to build their pyramids, but that's
still speculation. Like the first recorded use of a vertical
lift that comes from the third century BCE, and this
is when the mathematician Archimedes built a platform that could
be hoisted up and down using ropes and pulleys. Now,
these early lifts obviously didn't run on electricity. Instead, they
(04:22):
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 the first century CE, when Roman gladiators and wild
animals would ride the lifts from the lower levels up
(04:43):
to the floor of the coliseum. 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
the stairs.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Still, definitely, 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
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 the private elevator was
(05:20):
an easy way for his mistress to visit him in secret,
and he referred to it as a flying chair. Basically,
all you had to do to operate it was to
pull a cord connected to a pulley system and from
their gravity and a series of counterweights would do the rest.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's a pretty clever I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah. And in the early eighteen hundred, steam actually gets incorporated,
and this ends up being super helpful because steam powered
lifts were able to move much heavier loads. You're thinking
about things like coal or lumber and steel, 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 it's actually a big part
(05:55):
of what made the Industrial Revolution so transformative. Steam powered
elevator still had one major flaw. They were really dangerous,
like super dangerous, and if a rope snapped, the lift
would just plummet, and unfortunately, that happened pretty often all
through the first half of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Right And it's around that halfway point that an entrepreneur
and 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 project for
a company that made bedframes. So the client needed a
way to move heavy manufacturing equipment to the second floor
of its factory. It was only one problem, though, and
(06:34):
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
straight to the ground floor. So Otis's solution to the
problem was to develop the world's first safety device for elevators.
(06:55):
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
of grooves that were along the vertical rails of the elevator,
and that would sort of arrest the fall and lock
(07:15):
the car in place.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So it's pretty innovative, that's pretty amazing. 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.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, that's right. I mean all of the elevators of
the era were braced on either side by these vertical
rails that help 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 in free fall, which would obviously
be dangerous and terrifying. And so Otis's breakthrough was to
(07:47):
carve grooves into the rails and create kind of a
saw toothed ratchet system that would act as these brakes.
Industrial companies recognize the merits of the new braking system
right away, and Otis quickly set to work on filing
orders for freight elevators. But the public was still unconvinced,
understandably because it is such a different invention and everything,
(08:10):
but most people viewed elevators as these death traps, and
they were 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, Elishah Otis allowed
them to do just that.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
So you're saying that, like fairgoers were actually willing to
get into these elevators and test the brake systems.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
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. You're at the Crystal Palace exposition Hall,
and Otis constructed this fifty foot wooden elevator. Then, with
(08:58):
some help from none other than Pace 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 in 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. The onlookers were stunned and sort
(09:22):
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 really was, and you know,
they thought, maybe Otis just got insanely lucky, and there
(09:44):
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, Otis won over the public
and convinced them that elevators were at long last safe
(10:05):
to ride.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That is such an amazing stunt, Like it's such an
amazing pr thing that all you're basically doing is riding
an elevator.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
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 was still about three
years after the fair, But then the floodgates really open,
and within sixteen years, more than two thousand passenger elevators
were operating all across the country.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
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
after his first elevator was installed in New York. But
his sons did carry on the family business along with others,
and they worked to make improvements on that original design,
(10:58):
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 traffic transport
systems in the world. And that's not an exaggeration. According
to the La Times, the world's elevators now move the
equivalent of the Earth's population every seventy two hours. Wow.
(11:20):
If you think about that, every three days, over seven
and a half billion people take a ride on an elevator.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
That is not something I'd even comprehended. That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, 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 Otis elevators. 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 if you
(11:51):
step into an elevator today, the chances are you will
find that Otis name inscribed on the walls.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
There, which makes a lot more sense than all the
elevator in the world being nicknamed Otis. But 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 were a couple thousands spread
across the country by the early eighteen seventies, but the
majority of those were still being used in industrial settings,
(12:18):
and you'd find the safety elevators in coal mines or
construction sites, but it was still pretty rare to see
one in an office building or apartment complex.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
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, as business owners begin adding elevators
to their office buildings, 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.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, 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 bird's eye view of the skyline.
But before elevators made them more accessible, those top floors
(13:19):
were 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.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Better, exactly, and so when elevators came along, not only
did those higher floors get much more appealing and much
more valuable, 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 needed to fight for new land to develop on,
(13:56):
like that's something that's always in short supply in cities. Instead,
they could simply build upwards new offices, hotel rooms, retail
space like there's nothing but air above. So in a way,
elevators literally shape 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.
(14:17):
And according to him, quote, if we didn't have elevators,
we would have a megalopolis, one continuous city stretching from
Philadelphia to Boston, because everything would be five or six
stories tall.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about it as this choice
between a sprawling horizontal city or this more densely clustered,
vertical one, And it reminds me of 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 century or so. So the idea is that you
have these two new technologies that were basically pushing us
(14:50):
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 moved 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 going to focus on developing their cities around.
And if you looked up in an American city during
(15:10):
the last one hundred years, it's pretty obvious you know
which one they.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Picked, definitely. But it's not like cars were left by
the wayside or anything like. Elevators may have won the
battle to shape cities, but cars are still the you know,
transportation of choice in suburbs where the sprawl is much
less of an issue.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, I guess in the end, 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. But
before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
(15:54):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the eccentricities of elevator etiquette. 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
(16:16):
yet impersonal at the same time. 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.
(16:37):
You know, I'm sure you think about this all the
time and really worry 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.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
About I don't think I even realized you're supposed to
leave your hat.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
On a bus, but yeah, leave it on.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
But it's interesting because restaurants and buses are both examples
of public spaces, right, So for elevators, it was really
more about whether they were a mode of transportation or
just another room in a building, albeit a moving room.
So it's kind of a tough call because both descriptions
are technically a fit for that.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
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 social interaction, Like even if you don't know the
other passengers, you know that they live or work in
(17:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
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 situation.
So it always creates this I don't know like anxiety
or tension or something.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
No, I don't know. I usually just go ahead and
get in and get everybody a hug, and just I
get that out of the way exactly. And it feels like, now,
more than one hundred and fifty years after their invention,
we still haven't gotten over those feelings of discomfort. It's like,
despite all the advances in elevator design, the one thing
we can't seem to resolve is this inherent awkwardness of
(18:11):
taking this short ride with other strangers.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So I am curious if you know what causes that,
like what makes it feel so awkward?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
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 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 an arm's length
of distance between us and other people, and the elevator
(18:40):
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 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 not only
that you're dangling from the roof by this cable. And
(19:01):
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, about nineteen hundred people die
taking the stairs each year, which is just a really
bizarre fact, but according to Consumer Watch, they were only
about twenty seven elevator related deaths per year worldwide. Now,
(19:22):
I gonna be honest, I wouldn't even known it was
that much. And considering that elevators make roughly eighteen billion
trips each year according to the La Times, that works
out to an exceptionally low fatality rate. It's about a
point zero zero zero zero zero zero one five percent
per trip. So you know, the awkwardness you feel in
(19:44):
an elevator is very real, but the sense of danger
not so much.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, I mean that definitely tracks with what I learned
this week about the origin of elevator music. So I'd
always assume 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
(20:10):
to fill that awkward silence that comes from riding a
lift with strangers.
Speaker 2 (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 what.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
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 I guess the human interaction
is supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's too bad it doesn't really work. I mean, in reality,
there is no escaping the awkward, or 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.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It actually, I guess sort of makes sense I always
suspected that was the case. But is this by design
or did the buttons just malfunction a lot, or like
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It is by design, so the reason why is pretty interesting. Apparently,
when the Americans with Disabilities Act was first passed in
nineteen ninety, 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 way someone with
the disability would have enough time to get inside before
(21:20):
the door's 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 deactivate 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 a delay,
(21:41):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
For instance, I mean it makes me wonder why elevators
even have these if they're all deactivated, why bother with
having them?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Anyway, I think part of it is like a placebo effect,
like a button to mass just makes us feel a
little bit more 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,
and this is what they wrote, quote, buttons placed at
city crosswalks are often disabled, and the thermostats and many
(22:17):
office buildings are rigged so that the temperatures can't be
altered even if the numbers appear to change.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean, it's a little annoying, but I can also,
you know, see the logic there, 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.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, I mean, who doesn't like pushing buttons?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, there's at least one other good thing about elevator
rides that I did want to mention it, And strangely enough,
it stems from that social awkwardness that we've been talking about.
But before we get to that, let's take one last
quick break.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Welcome back to part time Genius. So okay, well, so
you've peaked my interest before the break, and you've got
to tell me what's the upside to an awkward encounter
in an elevator.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
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 small space with a stranger, even for a brief moment,
we're forced to think about and respond to somebody else's existence,
(23:33):
and that's something we don't have to do very often
outside of the elevator.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
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 checkout line.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well that's true, but in those cases, the interactions 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 costs. But apart from small, intentional
encounters like that, most of us are actually pretty isolated
(24:06):
in public spaces. You know, we're 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
(24:26):
box with you or what they might 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 to a
(24:49):
CEO who couldn't get away because they're right there in
this box with you, and it's called 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 look 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 back is a
(25:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
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 they're
such a smart place to, like, you know, investigate interactions.
It does make me think, though, like you know, there
are these new fangled elevators that with these new inventions,
and it makes you wonder about how society will interact
(25:43):
after that.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And why do you say that, Well, I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
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 have similar destinations. It's not like
the current system where you step into an elevator and
then request the floor you want in 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
(26:07):
in your direction.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah. I feel like we've seen these, you know, and
a lot of the sort of new or fancier office
buildings in New York these days.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, I got Kanye NaSTA is 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 a lot less likely that a mailroom clerk has
that opportunity to bump into the executive who who you know,
might implement or be influenced by their idea.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I mean that is 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 big problem these days, mego.
But I don't want to give the impression that the
elevator's best days are behind it. 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
it's true. So just to think about some examples here.
(26:59):
You know, 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 move between shafts in order to find like the
(27:44):
fastest route to where they needed to be.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That's fascinating. So it's basically like real world wonkavators.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well, I'm definitely looking forward to that one. But before
we head out, why don't we do the fact off?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So, did you know it's illegal to pee in an
elevator in Singapore?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I mean, I assume it's illegal to pee in an
elevator in Singapore?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, okay, well 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 pee, 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
(28:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I really hope they come up with a contraption to
do that at their pools too, Like all of a sudden,
it's like cover close you in.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All the water drains out and then you're just standing there.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
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 in
those hours that you might be stuck in an elevator.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
That actually, when you first said it, it was confusing, But
you know what, that actually does make a lot of sense,
and that's thoughtful to do that, all right. So here's
one 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 fifteen hundred stairs was
(29:39):
just enough to keep him away. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
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 motors
sound and were They document their rides on pretty normal
elevators and sometimes it's and sometimes it isn't. But Slate
did an article on this, and the author wrote, quote,
(30:04):
while I have never found my journeys in real life
elevators to be particularly therapeutic, I find these videos very soothing.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I could see that that's pretty neat all Right, So
you've heard of the Burj Khalifa. You know that's one
hundred and sixty stories, like eight hundred and thirty meters tall.
I think passive. Yeah, that's the first time I've ever
measured something in meters. But I've got to convert that.
So what We'll let Charles are one of the listeners,
weigh in and give us that fact. So all right,
So get this. Apparently it's so tall that you can
(30:32):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Oh man, 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 and it was so beautiful,
and I like immediately wanted to jet forward and see
it again. You know, like, I feel like that that
kind of has that same feel.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Oh totally.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
That's a great fact. I'm going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know what, I'll take it. I feel like it's
been a little while, so this feels really good. All right. Well,
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 going to 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
(31:36):
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite show.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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