An Elevator Quiz Works on So Many Levels (Pt 3)

Answer: Traction Elevator

Traction elevators are the most common type, especially in high-rise buildings, because of their efficiency and high speed. They use steel ropes or belts and counterweights to move. A counterweight is a weight that balances the elevator car, reducing the amount of energy needed to move the elevator. As the elevator travels upward, the counterweight goes down, and vice versa, minimizing the wear and tear on the system. Counterweights also help prevent the elevator from free-falling if there is a mechanical failure.

Answer: The E.V. Haughwout Building elevator

The E.V. Haughwout Building elevator was installed in 1857, but is no longer an operating passenger elevator. In fact, the building itself has been renovated, with a ground floor of retail spaces and upper floors converted into residential apartments. The building had the first commercial passenger elevator designed by Elisha Otis, a steam-powered elevator which was revolutionary at the time.

Answer: The Summit at One Vanderbilt, in Manhattan

The Ascent elevator starts at the 1,084 feet level and travels on the outside of the Summit at One Vanderbilt in midtown Manhattan, and then ascends up to 1,219 feet. This elevator was installed by the Liberty Elevator Corporation.

The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, features a glass-floored (7 centimeters / 2.75 inches thick) elevator, that goes up to 1,135 feet. The Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea, has an indoor glass floor at 478 meters (1,572 feet) on its 118th floor, but it's a floor on the observation level, not an elevator. The Burj Khalifa Elevator and other buildings have higher glass-walled elevators, but not higher glass-bottomed elevators.

Answer: 1 World Trade Center, NYC

The fastest North American elevator currently operating is at 1 World Trade Center in Manhattan, running 2,000 feet per minute (10.3 meters per second), which is approximately 23 miles per hour, reaching the 102nd floor in just about 60 seconds.

The next fastest elevators are in the John Hancock Center and they travel 1,800 feet per minute (9.1 meters per second), which is about 20 mph.

Answer: China

In 2024 China, with approximately 10.9 million elevators in operation and a population of about 1.4 billion people, has 7.8 elevators per 1,000 people, the highest per capita rate in the world.

Spain has the second highest elevator density in the world, with about 5.2 elevators per 1,000 people. Japan is next with 4.8 elevators per 1,000 people, followed by Hong Kong with 4.5 per 1,000 people, Italy with 3.5 per 1,000 people, and then Germany with 3.0 elevators per 1,000 people. Monaco, with its very low population of about 38,914 in 2024 does, as one might guess, have a relatively high number of elevators (90), but that per capita rate of 2.3 elevators per 1,000 residents is still far below China's.

All the statistics quoted are correct in 2024.

Answer: False

These figures are not only an astronomical exaggeration, the two figures don't even equal each other: 1.36 trillion miles equals 7.2 quadrillion feet not quintillion. But both those numbers are a thousand times more than the actuality, which is that elevators in the United States travel approximately 720 billion feet or about 136 million miles per year, where about 900,000 elevators make about 18 billion trips annually.

The calculation comes from the average elevator ride being 40 feet, or 4-5 floors according to the National Elevator Industry, Inc. The average elevator has five passengers with each passenger taking an average four trips a day for 250 business days making a total of 18 billion trips. Each trip is an average 40 feet so the total comes to 720 billion feet or 136.36 million miles.

Answer: Smart

The smart system assigns which of several cars should go to where the summons is from, and that elevator then takes the passenger to the floor selected with minimal stops. In this way, groups of passengers who summoned the same floor, or nearby floors, are grouped together. This reduces wait times, and also makes for a more energy conserving efficiency. This type of system was introduced in 1950 by the Otis Elevators Company's "Autotronic" system in the Atlantic Refining Building in Dallas, Texas. In the 1990s, the technology made significant advancements.

Answer: An airplane crashed into the building

Every year, New York City's Empire State Building elevators cover a distance of over 180,000 miles, the equivalent of circling the Earth seven times. On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber plane got lost in the fog and crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 80th floors. One of the plane's engines cut an elevator cable while Betty Lou Oliver was at the 80th floor working as an elevator operator.

She was actually thrown from that cabin, but was placed into another elevator for evacuation. Unfortunately, that elevator had suffered some damage too; all six cables snapped, and the automatic braking cable was destroyed, so Betty Lou freefell 75 stories down. And survived! The investigation surmised that she was saved by air pressure slowing down the elevator, which was in a nearly airtight shaft, along with the impact being cushioned by those severed cables piled up underneath the elevator.

Answer: Elisha Otis

Gottlieb Daimler, William Lanchester, and Vincent Bendix all made significant contributions to automobile braking systems, but it was Elisha Otis and his company that invented, in 1854, a device that would be able prevent a passenger elevator from plummeting to the ground if the rope broke.

Mr. Otis demonstrated his invention at the World's Fair at the Crystal Palace in New York City that same year. He ascended in an elevator platform high up and then he gave the signal for the rope that was holding up the elevator to be cut. Instead of falling, the elevator stayed safely aloft. His safety brake used a flat-leaf spring mechanism attached to the top of the cabin and was connected to the hoisting cable. Normally, the elevator's weight keeps the spring in a retracted position. But when a cable snaps, the tension on the spring is released, and then the spring mechanism snaps open into action. It engages clamps positioned on both sides of the elevator shaft, which grip onto notches cut into the rails of the shaft. Modern day emergency brakes have new technologies that do the trick, such as safety sensors that detect things like excess speed.

Answer: Trapped in elevators for days

A 76-year-old woman named Kively Papajohn was stuck in an elevator for six days from January 2nd to January 8, 1988 in Limassol, Cyprus. Luckily she had groceries with her. Her time trapped broke a record held by Graham Coates, who spent 62 hours (May 24-May 27 in 1986) stuck in an elevator.

The most recent marathon of those listed was suffered by Nicholas White, a production manager who was returning from a cigarette break when he got stuck between floors for 41 hours in New York City in 2008. He suffered dehydration but survived.