To ask what the lift is called?

[Downunderduchess]

Putting this here, because I don’t know what subject it should come under. I was fascinated with a recent thread where several people mentioned a particular type of lift. I had never heard of it before, definitely don’t think we have them in Australia. The lift goes around a track & you jump out at your floor. What is it called please?? I want to tell someone about it & would like to know it’s correct name. Thanks!

This may be an urban myth but aren't they called paternosters because people were so scared they said the our father as they got on and off?!

more likely that it was because it was an endless loop like rosary beads which Catholics use to count when saying their Our Fathers or whatever - (I'm no a Catholic so I might have some of the terminology wrong).

No, you're right, @TheSandman -- that's exactly why. The 'cars' follow one another on a closed loop like the beads of a rosary.

I've never seen one 'live' but they always seemed to have them on US hospital dramas in the 1970s.

They used to have one of those in one of the buildings at Vienna University... maybe the computer sci building? I used to like going all the way round.

Ah, I remember the Attenborough Tower at Leicester Uni having a paternoster... such fun to go over the top and under the bottom... even though there were signs saying not to.

@whitebadger

Mad isn’t it? I’m not frightened of lifts but they’re one of my recurring dreams!

They would be a brilliant horror movie device,

Imagine daleks appearing in them?

PP who said you'd take the stairs - you wouldn't if you did architecture at Sheffield!

www.fluxmagazine.com/paternoster-lift/

Would scare me those, I hate stepping on and off escalators though 😬

I had never heard of these - even though my DD went to Sheffield (must ask her about it next time I see her). I love these odd little bits of architectural/social history and the curious name. Thank for starting the thread OP -fascinating.

I’d be there for hours too scared to hop on

@BikeRunSki I wonder if you worked with DH. He worked there until 2006 and then transferred to the Leeds office for a couple of years when we moved to the NE.

I've been in one, over-rode and under-rode a few times. There were signs warning you not to get out of you were over or under riding and to keep your hands inside the car at all times. Also ominous red warnings that you were approaching the end of the line. If you'd wanted to you could've stepped off into the attic or basement, I imagine. There was also a red cord going horizontally on every floor to pull in case you got trapped.

@TattiePants, I actually worked in the Leeds office, but visited Warrington occassionally. I worked for WSA 2000-2003.

@Fallulah that's the one. Did people actually call it Baker building when you went there? I was in Edge or E block as everyone called it. I started there when it was a poly and it became UCE before I left.

@Downunderduchess

It's called a Paternoster due to its resemblance to a confessional box!

Common in Germany at one time. Travels up and down at reasonable speed to allow for getting on and off. It's on an endless chain and goes up and over at the top to return downwards on an adjacent shaft. Older Germans used to frighten their children by telling then that if they stayed on to ride over the top is would turn upside down and tip them out.

well, they are dangerous.
There was one in a New York nightclub.

My brothers best mate, let's call him Dave, worked at the nightclub. One evening he tripped on the lift, and the lift didn't stop/brake and he was squashed at the point where the lift meets the next floor.

he survivied, the firefighters who cut him out were amazed that his spine was not broken, but (look away now if you are squeamish) all his soft tissue aroudn his middle was cut in half.

Amazingly, apart from losing his spleen, he had no permament damage, and after months and months in hospital, came back to UK his same old cheerful self.

He did get a massive compensation payout.

The wikipedia article I linked to above says that the accident rate is 30 times that of standard lifts and that there was an average of one fatality per year when they were in common use in Germany.

They are also unsuitable for wheelchair users and difficult or impossible to use by anyone with limited mobility.

Modern H&S dictates that where possible, machinery does indeed need to be idiot proof and has safety mechanisms to prevent injury, so if there isn't a reliable system for stopping the lift before it crushes anyone who trips at the entrance for example, then it wouldn't be considered to be safe enough to use.

Common sense has probably regressed too far now for them to be considered safe. As has the litigation culture.

I loved the one at Sheffield. I used to go right round over the top and bottom (rebel).

I've used paternosters which were fairly common in Spain. However I'd be interested to know if those still existing here have a bar or grill over the door? I know of one young man who fell to the bottom of the lift shaft ....

I wonder if there are any incidents of actual injuries recorded in their use....?

see my post just above yours

Ah I love a Paternoster I haven't been in one since uni, although the last office I worked in was a tower with 17 floors (plus ground floor and 2 floors of basements) and we had a mini paternoster for the post. it had an auto tip function so that the post was automatically tipped out of the paternoster into the awaiting post bins for sorting.

It moved very slowly and roughly once a month an irate email would come from the post room to the building reminding everyone to PLEASE STOP putting down mugs of coffee/tea on the paternoster