I rode in the THE oldest residential elevator on the planet recently. It is in the Marland Mansion in Ponca City, OK. The white house had the first one, but it was removed during one of the renovations.

The walls are covered in buffalo hide. It is just a three story building, so no a long ride. Otis elevator is proud of it, and they come service it every three months to keep it working perfectly.

Riding in an elevator is very safe. In Oklahoma City, the tallest building is 50 stories. The top floor is a restaurant. The have one elevator that only goes from ground to 50th floor. It is fast enough your ears will pop going up or down. It is a fancy and good restaurant. I sure would not want to walk up 50 floors.

Check out this article:

https://historycollection.com/cheat-death-twice-betty-lou-oliver-survived-75-storey-elevator-crash-plane-crashed-building/


The rescuers had placed Betty on a stretcher and put her in an elevator on the 79th floor. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that the cables on the elevator had been weakened in the crash. As soon as they placed Betty on the elevator, the cables snapped, and Betty started to hurtle down towards the bottom of the elevator shaft. Her entire life must surely have passed before her eyes as the elevator rocketed towards the ground.

In a few seconds, she would be dead at just 20 years of age; with no opportunity to achieve any of her goals in life nor would she see her husband again. Remarkably, Betty survived her second ordeal of the day with an extraordinary amount of luck by all accounts. The elevator plunged a total of 75 stories, approximately 1,000 feet, so in reality, Betty shouldn’t have survived.

As it transpired, the thousand feet of elevator cable had broken away and fallen to the bottom of the shaft before Betty landed. By the time she landed, the cable was there to provide a softer landing surface. The rapid compression of air also added to the cushion. Although there are more fun ways to end up in the Guinness Book of Records, Betty’s name was added for the unlikely feat of longest survived elevator fall; a record she still holds today. It was an incredible escape but what became of Betty Lou Oliver?

And don't even start about escalators, when they stop unexpectedly you have to walk up them like stairs. That can lead to lawsuits, criminal investigations, the works.

I can count the number of times I have taken the elevator at the hospital on one hand.

Been on staff since 2002

I ALWAYS jump at the end of elevator rides. Wife punches me and tells me to knock it off if she is there, just like my sister did when we were kids. Is there a book they all read or something? Usually, they don't like the Three Stooges either. I think maybe there is a connection.

If I had time I guess I would lie flat on my back on the floor. The elevators I worked on when contacted to paint the doors all over SoCal usually had springs at the bottom of the shaft. I was given keys to remotely control the car. The point was to put the car below my floor enough to walk on the top to access the door release. But you know I had to move the car up and look down just for curiosity. The truth is when you know about elevators, they are scary. The pit is usually not a comfortable place to work in but the techs do it all the time. They ride the tops too checking wires and mechanicals.

If top fuel drivers can stand the forces they incur I would think you'd have a chance. The thing is, once the car reaches speed you are in free fall. How do you get down?

Incidentally, using the remote keys allows movers and construction people to haul stuff on top that won't fit inside. They will call out an elevator tech to operate when needed. It's not cheap. In the old days a building engineer might have the key and help move some long stuff. I worked with a commercial moving company once in awhile as a stand by carpenter assembling work stations taken apart to move to a new office. It's been a long time but I suspect remote operation is limited to only certified techs. The old days were more like the wild west.

Moving commercial on weekends and at night in a high rise is very different in some respects. You see some weird siht. The sight of a piano going up the side of a building comes to mind. This has been done, BTW, but the logistics and cost keep that sort of thing to a minimum.

Generally now there is at least on oversized car for this kind of thing. But go into some old buildings and things get creative. There's movers and then there's movers of a much higher degree.

If you can't jump...

Monkey roll :D

Mythbusters did an episode on this one time and I don’t remember much about it, but I think they determined that if the elevator is free falling you aren’t surviving the stop.

Probably could find the episode on YouTube if you’re so inclined.

During my first job in engineering there was an old cigar-smoking draftsman next to me who firmly believed it was just a matter of timing your leap correctly as the elevator impacted the floor and you would walk away unharmed :D Explaining the law of physics to him? Nope, he wasn't havein' any of that book smart mumbojumbo from college ...

Monkey Roll FTW!

From what I understand, if you're in a violent car accident, you should leap through the open window and monkey roll and you'll be fine, especially if the accident involves ending up in a body of water of some sort (which is clearly the norm for automobile accidents and a good reason to NOT wear a seatbelt).

That guy was a hoot!

LOL! Just Jump at the speed of terminal velocity and don't get hit by the top of the elevator, and you should be good to go.

In March 2010, 80-year old Sir Stirling Moss, the legendary former racer, fell three stories down an elevator shaft at his London home, suffering two broken ankles, four broken bones in his foot, and four chipped vertebrae. Somehow, he managed to survive, and went on to live another 10 years, passing away at age 90.


Back in the late 1950s, there was a TV series called 'The Man and the Challenge' in which scientist/adventurer Dr. Glenn Barton (played by George Nader) is recruited by the govt. for high-risk missions. In one episode that I remember, Barton was in an elevator that suddenly starts to free fall. In order to absorb some of the impact from the sudden stop, he grabs onto a light fixture and holds himself up close to the ceiling. Of course, this being TV, he comes away unscathed, but I doubt this would work in the real world.

This works on so many levels!:D

^^^ until the steps stop working ... then what :D?

Thanks r cooled my big brother met Sterling back in the late 60's at at the US Grand prix, they be came pen pals so I always will rember Mr Moss as a family friend

This is the least of my concerns right now…

I don’t wake up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat about it, but don’t you want to Be Prepared just in case?

No. Might as well be prepared for getting left behind during the rapture, (wait-wasn't that last Tuesday?), or getting eaten by a tiger in the middle of San Francisco. Granted, I'm about the least worrisome person who ever lived but it's pointless to think about things that are not actually happening and are not going to happen.

Just my opinion, as always. :)

An interesting topic is how elevators contributed to the advent of tall buildings. It wasn't actually the invention of the elevator or lift but the invention of the centrifugal brake system. Before the brake was invented, no one would ride in an elevator more than one or two floors for the very reason in the OP. Natural fear of heights and falling.

One of my uncles told me when I was a kid that fear of heights and intelligence was directly correlated. He was a funny guy. :)

Once the brake came along, the birth of the skyscraper occurred. Before that, there were no tall buildings.

Exactly the topics of my next threads!

i take stairs whenever possible. i do believe it will help my life.

but, in the scenario, i think you are going to have to knock out your friend and lay ontop of his body as a cushion.

:D

I used to work on the 11th floor of a 35 floor building. One of the guys that we worked with was trying to lose weight so we all started "doing the stairs" with him. At first, we'd go 11-->G-->11 a couple/few times per day. We worked up to going 11--> G --> 15 --> 11. And then, as you can imagine with a bunch of dudes, some folks were running, so everyone was running, or you'd get to a floor and say "I feel pretty good, should we go another few floors" to which the next guy would respond "hell, this is easy" and we'd feed off of each other. One day that went on until we all ran from 0 up to the top of the stairs at the door to the roof. The trip back down from 35 to 11 was rough. You'd never think that going down would be so hard.

Absolutely. And pray that when the elevator lands you are knocked off so when they find you, you guys aren't snuggling. Not that there's anything wrong with that if that's what you're into....