Elevators: Raising the Roof Since 1854

[Music] though we may take them for granted today the advent of the elevator in the 19th century transformed the way we live our lives revolutionising building design disrupting established conventions shaping our cities and making our vertical world fireball elevator systems have continually helped engineers and designers raise the roof of structures from the early skyscrapers of the 1800s to the incredible products of today that push the very limits of construction capability but what drove their original invention how did the first elevators work how have they evolved to support the extreme height as some of today's most impressive projects and how will they support the vertical cities of the future this is the story behind a relatively simple innovation that is continuing to shape our world [Music] [Music] with land more freely available and stairs as the only means of vertical access there was little to drive the construction of high-rise structures before the 19th century as such tall buildings were largely limited to military or religious structures that use their height for strategic or ornamental purposes the upper levels of buildings were widely deemed to be undesirable while lower levels with easy street access and few stairs to climb were the preferred domain of wealthy residents and businesses alike additionally the practice of building with external load-bearing walls caused the structures to thicken at their bases as they grew taller reducing floor area on these desirable lower levels with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution urban areas began to grow substantially and the demand for space increased faced with a growing dilemma pioneers began considering alternative means of vertical access though simple elevators had existed for many centuries these early devices consisted primarily of a platform suspended by a rope and pulley system which was lifted by an animal or by manpower these devices were only used for moving individuals or goods over short distances due to their slow speeds and the risk they pose to human life in the event of a cable failure at New York's World's Fair in 1854 Elisha Otis presented the world's first vertical mobility platform capable of stopping rather than falling in the event of its main cable breaking Otis achieves this by designing his elevator with a mechanism between the cable and the elevator car consisting of two levers when the cable was under tension these levers retracted away from the sides of the elevator shaft and allowed the car to move freely however if the cable broke releasing its tension Springs behind the levers would force them outwards into groups in the elevator rails those rails were then forced against the shaft walls quickly arresting any cars fall the success of Otis's demonstration at the World's Fair prompted a flood of orders from developers at the same time architects and engineers were beginning to use steel in their building super structures enabling projects to be constructed with thinner more lightweight walls the combination of Otis's invention together with the increasing popularity of this new material began to have a transformative impact on building design shattering the negative preconceptions around tall structures and opening up a new vertical frontier as the early boom in skyscraper construction occurred in the United States elevators were also being adopted in buildings of all shapes and sizes around the world in Paris the construction of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World's Fair presented unique challenges in moving people up and down the structures steeply inclined legs to overcome this double-decker elevators powered by a hydraulic ram were installed as the elevator car moved up the tower an operator would adjust the pitch of the floor to ensure passengers remained horizontal indeed many of these early elevators were supervised by lift operators and primarily powered by steam or hydraulics despite being developed and available to install from around 1900 fully automatic lifts proved widely unpopular as rather like today's driverless cars the automated operation of such a sophisticated device was a cause of concern to many it wasn't until 1945 with an extended operator strike and the introduction of both emergency stop buttons and telephones within elevator cars that automated systems became widely adopted [Music] as the 20th century continued new technologies emboldened architects and engineers to design ever more elaborate tool structures [Music] Seattle's Space Needle was constructed for the 1962 World's Fair while in st. Louis the 192 meter gateway arch was erected marking the city status as the Gateway to the West chosen from a design competition in 1947 the arch was to contain an observation deck at its summit posing a considerable challenge to conventional elevator systems the arches solution operates more like a vertical tramway with visitors entering one of eight horizontal compartments which proceed up one leg of the arch along curved tracks starting the journey hanging from guide rails the capsules remain upright by tilting in the opposite direction as they rise maintaining a level orientation during the trip to the top the first half of the 20th century also saw Paternoster elevators installed in many structures formed of a constantly moving chain of boxes that passengers could step in and out of the systems were initially very popular in buildings where large numbers of people frequently moved between floors however with elevator cars moving very slowly and numerous instances of passengers becoming crushed or losing limbs patent Oscars were phased out by the 1970s and less than 300 examples remain in operation today with an economic boom in the 1960s demand for space in some of America's largest cities once again increased while building taller structures on available sites was a logical way to increase floor area architects and developers faced the challenge of providing sufficient vertical access for occupants without the increased number of elevator shafts reducing lateral floor areas to the point where schemes became unviable this challenge was overcome in designs for new york's original World Trade Center towers structures that became the tallest buildings in the world when they were first constructed in the early 1970s by stacking elevator shafts and introducing sky lobbies passenger capacity could be increased without increasing the number of shafts on the floor plate under this system occupants would disembark at a sky lobby floor before entering another elevator to continue their journey the formation freed up considerable amounts of letter pool floor area particularly on the higher-value upper levels yielding greater returns for developers a variation of this system can be seen in Express elevators where an elevator only serves a dedicated number of flaws improving service and speed for passengers while reducing the overall number of shafts required in a structure the system in London's one Canada square is a clear example of this in practice in a similar vein double-decker elevators have also come to prominence particularly in cities across Asia and North America in a double-decker system occupants are typically separated by escalators as they enter the lobby those heading to even-numbered floors travel in the upper car while those seeking an odd-numbered floor take the bottom this again increases passenger capacity without conceding valuable floor space to additional shafts with the advent of these elevator systems and with their continued improvement over time the fastest installations now able to travel at up to 20 meters a second and the free fall of cars and almost impossible occurrence working or living a quarter of a kilometer above street level has become a convenient reality in cities around the world [Music] with the global population continually expanding and with people increasing living in cities or major urban areas engineers are today pushing the very limits of tor building design the first decade of the 21st century have witnessed the construction of some of the tallest structures ever conceived one of the finishes speed and safety features of elevators continue to be improved and have generally kept pace with advancements in skyscraper construction the principle of an elevator car suspended by a cable and moving vertically inside a static shaft has remained largely unchanged for over a hundred and sixty years with plans for a number of towers that will reach or exceed a kilometer in height now under consideration and even entering early development in some instances elevator engineers are approaching the limits of steel cable capabilities and are being forced to innovate once again electromagnetic elevators rather like maglev trains move their passenger cars by electromagnetic propulsion negating the need for a cable altogether whilst being able to travel it increased speeds and with reduced vibration they have also created an opportunity for elevators to move horizontally through a building developed by Thyssen group these horizontal elevators run on tracks and are capable of moving up and down as well as sideways across a building this method enables a continuous flow of elevator cars to operate within a single shaft with all cars traveling in the same direction without fear of collision while no functional system of this type currently exists the Eastside tower project in Berlin is set to become the first building in the world to feature this technology when it completes in 2021 [Music] alternatively externally mounted elevator systems could see elevator shafts disappear completely creating more space within structures and heralding a new age of architectural design these Sky pods conceived by PLP architecture also employ a magnetic levitation but with passenger cars mounted to tracks on a building's exterior this system would operate in a similar way to a rail network with tracks curving across a building's facade and branching off to reach destinations where required before returning to the main loop as cars move around a structure their occupants would remain upright through the use of a gyroscope despite making for a potentially terrifying experience this concept could liberate engineers and designers from the existing conventions of vertical design and see a new generation of freeform towers appear across a cities a simplified though no less impressive version of this idea was incorporated into fostering partners design proposal for the tulip a 305 meter observation tower in London from their humble beginnings elevator systems have continually played a critical if somewhat understated role in shaping the world we live in and with such incredible innovations ahead their seemingly perpetual upward journey looks set to continue long into the future if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m

Channel: The B1M

Views: 335,140

Rating: 4.9531355 out of 5

Keywords: BIM, B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, Fred Mills, innovation, elevator, supertall, lifts, otis, thyssenkrupp, plp architecture, skypods, electromagnetic elevator, cities, skyline, skyscraper, eiffel tower, st louis, gateway arch, double decker elevator

Id: a_4hVIWaa_8

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 06 2019