Uplifting Facts
Sunday
History’s first elevator was likely invented by Archimedes in about 236 BC. It involved a rope wound around a drum and driven by a capstan powered directly by humans, and became the standard Greek design at the time.
Monday
The first elevator of the modern era was installed in a New York department store in 1857, but was so unpopular with visitors that it was removed after just 3 years.
Tuesday
Before elevators, there was no status to higher floors in an apartment building, because these meant more stairs to climb, and there were certainly no top-floor penthouses to brag of. In fact, higher floors meant lower rent, not higher.
Wednesday
Before elevators were automated, an “elevator operator,” who answered the bell when waiting passengers summoned and pulled the brake when the car reached the right floor, was a regular profession, but is now extremely rare.
Thursday
In the US, about 27 people die annually from elevator-related injuries, but this is still darn safe compared to stairs, which kill about 12,000 people a year (not to mention that about 18 billion passenger elevator trips are taken every year).
Friday
Elevators are too modern to have a designated Greek ” ___phobia” name, but those little boxes can trigger plenty of other existing (and named) phobias, such as a fear of small spaces, fear of being trapped, fear of hard-to-escape social situations, fear of heights, and fear of falling.
Saturday
At some point, weight of the heavy steel cable which holds an elevator becomes a limiting factor to how high it can go; you might have noticed changing elevators halfway when going to the top of very tall buildings. For this reason, next-generation elevators may involve lighter cables of advanced metals or cable-less, electromagnetic elevators which can also go sideways.