We bet you don’t think much about elevators in your daily life; yet, they serve an extremely important purpose in our everyday lives. Think about the elevators you encounter each day as you head to doctor’s appointments, malls, work, school, and points of interest on your vacations. With more than 900,000 elevators currently in operation in this country alone, that translates to about one elevator per 344 users. We have even more fun facts for you here:
- Statistically, elevators are the safest mode of transportation – 20 times safer than escalators, according to Elevator History. Elevators happen to be much safer than motor vehicles. While about 26 people die in elevators each year in this country, 26 people die in car crashes every five hours.
- Every three days, elevators carry the equivalent of the Earth’s population. With a global population of 7.4 billion, that’s a lot of elevator trips! More than 325 million ride on elevators each day compared with 245 riders on escalators.
- Ever wonder where the term “elevator music” came from? In the 1920s when elevators first emerged onto the scene, the average person was fearful of stepping onto such a primitive device to transport themselves between floors. Elevator makers, hotels, and office buildings began piping in relaxing music to put passengers at ease so they would feel more comfortable. The practice continues today in some elevators.
- There were 24 elevators within the Roman Colosseum during ancient times, and they were all manually operated by 200 slaves.
- The most famous elevators in the world can be found in St. Louis’ Gateway Arch (for obvious reasons) and Lacerda Elevator in Salvador, which happens to be the world’s busiest elevator and Brazil’s first. It acts as a go-between for Uptown and Downtown, transporting 900,000 passengers every month in 30-second trips. It first opened in 1873 as the Conceição Hydraulic Lift, renamed in 1896 after its engineer. Other famous elevators include Taipei 101 in China for its high speeds, Louvre Elevator in France for its open cabin, and the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas for its 39-degree incline along the pyramid.
While there are all kinds of interesting elevator facts (most deaths within elevators occur to service technicians; the Close Door button doesn’t actually make the door close any faster; the first written record of a primitive elevator was in 3rd century BC Greece, etc.) we hope you enjoyed these fun tidbits.
Need service for your existing elevator? We can help here at Mowrey Elevator. Contact our family-owned company today for further information.