h a l f b a k e r yBaker Street Irregulars
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Normal revolving doors spin in a horizontal plane, and require people to push them around. How much cooler if you entered the revolving door by walking onto a platform, which then sank into the ground, carried you round, and rose back up again inside the building? The platform you stood on would be
suspended from a vertical wheel, so that the platform and you stayed upright. To get out, you'd step on the platform at the inside of the building and be carried upwards.
Although you wouldn't have to push the door, it would need a power source to lift you back up; though it could use a flywheel to capture most of the energy gained by your bodyweight falling. The principle would be similar to a ferris wheel.
This system could be used in place of stairs if buildings have a different floor level indoors than on the street (like the Millennium Wheel linking the Forth & Clyde and Union canals at Falkirk). It would also be an excellent gimmick for a store looking to attract visitors, although some safety equipment might need to be provided (though I often wonder why more people don't die on escalators).
Millennium Link & Wheel
http://www.seagullt...illennium_link.html Not quite the same, but a wheel used to raise and lower canal boats. [pottedstu, Nov 09 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Ditto
http://www.millenniumlink.org.uk/ Official site: see under Falkirk Wheel (but smaller pictures than first link). [pottedstu, Nov 09 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Humphrey Manlift
http://www.humphrey-manlift.com/ I would guess that women could ride it too. [LeBain, Jan 07 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Paternoster Lift
http://www.dartford...in_hall_lifts.shtml Not quite, but close [JKew, Jan 13 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
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When you come out in the building wouldn't you be standing on your head? Or am I visualising this wrongly? |
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[stupop]: I've edited it to (try and) be clearer. The platforms you stand on will be on a rotating wheel, but the platforms will remain the same way up, so you'll go in a circular path, but keep upright. It's like the baskets hanging off a big wheel (ferris wheel). |
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Why not just have a mini-rollercoaster to carry people in and out of the building? |
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Gotcha. Nice idea. It would be extra funny seeing people get stuck in this kind of revolving door. |
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I take it there will be plenty of other entrances, and this one will be marked clearly with a large croissant? Otherwise, some of the uninitiated-in-the-ways-of-the-'bakery might get a bit of a surprise. Would it be possible to use this idea for sheep-dips? |
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I like the idea of people disappearing underground and re-emerging on the other side of the wall. Could you have someone down there handing out flyers? Or perhaps dressed up as a ghost to scare them as they go past. |
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...and does that mean if I'm leaving I go *up-and-over*? |
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would it be possible to get a body part (arm, for instance) caught between the next level of the door coming down and the ground around it? that sounds really dangerous. |
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ravenswood, well then it could function as some sort of automatic baptismal. |
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A "vertical revolving door between different levels" sounds quite close to a paternoster lift -- essentially a continually-moving chain of lifts which users step in and out of to go up and down. |
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ISTR that one of the Oxford University buildings had one, but it was out of order when I visited. Bah. |
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[djp] No more likely than getting an arm caught in between the door and the frame of a vertical (normal) revolving door, some of which are powered. One presumes that safety measures would be in place. |
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soory. I would prolly be upsidedown once in the bulding, so I fishbone this. |
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why would you be upsidedown, FireElf? |
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Because that's the kind of thing he likes to do. Nothing personal, just his style. |
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you guys don't get it. since the door revolves, and goes vertical, the floor i am standing on will be more like a wall once it goes halfway, and on the other side the in would be upsidedown. or am I visualising it wrong? |
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Used at the entrance to hell, no power source would be required for the people to exit. It also provides that "sinking feeling" you should get when crossing the threshold to hoplessness. |
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My dear [FireElf], why not read the first two annos on this idea. Hell, read all of them, there aren't that many. |
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