Even if you own a building, you probably don't spend a lot of
your day thinking about your elevator company, the lift itself, or
anything you may believe about it that might not be true. It's one of
those amazing tools we use on a regular basis without ever taking the
time to realize just how miraculous it is. Make no mistake about it: our
lives would be a lot different without this invention, which saw its
first primitive designs as far back as 236 B.C. Today's lifts, of
course, are a lot different than those in the days of Archimedes. Here
are some common misconceptions about this machinery.
One rope breaks, and you're done for.
A lot of people mistakenly believe a single cable is suspending them when they get into the lift. If your elevator company installed a car suspended by a single cable, you probably need to find new people to work in your building. Today's machinery is quite a bit safer than that tidbit would have you think. There are several steel cables on every car, with each one completely capable of holding the cable by itself. The suspense thriller trope of a car in free fall is nearly impossible with today's systems.
An overloaded car is in imminent danger.
While this is perhaps true, your chances of being on a moving overloaded car are very slim. This is because there are sensors in the car that will go off if there is too much weight on the car. It simply won't move. There may be an alarm of some sort, which will continue to buzz until enough people get out of the car that it can safely transport the other passengers. If you don't have this safety feature on your system, you may want to talk to your elevator company about having it installed.
You could step into an empty shaft.
This is another one that can be blamed on the movies, which has invented all kinds of dangers that people think are legitimate. This one isn't. As your elevator company can demonstrate, the car itself is what controls whether or not the outside doors open. It is the car arriving safely at the precise point of landing that the hall door gets engaged and can then open. If it isn't there, the hallway doors have no reason to open. If the hall doors were indeed triggered by the people pressing the button while waiting for the car, then perhaps the suspenseful Dr. Drake Ramoray-for Friends fans-could occur in real life. But they aren't.
One rope breaks, and you're done for.
A lot of people mistakenly believe a single cable is suspending them when they get into the lift. If your elevator company installed a car suspended by a single cable, you probably need to find new people to work in your building. Today's machinery is quite a bit safer than that tidbit would have you think. There are several steel cables on every car, with each one completely capable of holding the cable by itself. The suspense thriller trope of a car in free fall is nearly impossible with today's systems.
An overloaded car is in imminent danger.
While this is perhaps true, your chances of being on a moving overloaded car are very slim. This is because there are sensors in the car that will go off if there is too much weight on the car. It simply won't move. There may be an alarm of some sort, which will continue to buzz until enough people get out of the car that it can safely transport the other passengers. If you don't have this safety feature on your system, you may want to talk to your elevator company about having it installed.
You could step into an empty shaft.
This is another one that can be blamed on the movies, which has invented all kinds of dangers that people think are legitimate. This one isn't. As your elevator company can demonstrate, the car itself is what controls whether or not the outside doors open. It is the car arriving safely at the precise point of landing that the hall door gets engaged and can then open. If it isn't there, the hallway doors have no reason to open. If the hall doors were indeed triggered by the people pressing the button while waiting for the car, then perhaps the suspenseful Dr. Drake Ramoray-for Friends fans-could occur in real life. But they aren't.
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