Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Expensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.

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Vertical revolving door

 Fun entrance device
  (+5, -2)
(+5, -2) 		  [vote for,
against]

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).

—pottedstu, Nov 09 2001

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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Annotation:







       When you come out in the building wouldn't you be standing on your head? Or am I visualising this wrongly?
—stupop, Nov 09 2001
   

       [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).
—pottedstu, Nov 09 2001
   

       Why not just have a mini-rollercoaster to carry people in and out of the building?
—hippo, Nov 09 2001
   

       Gotcha. Nice idea. It would be extra funny seeing people get stuck in this kind of revolving door.
—stupop, Nov 09 2001
   

       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?
—lewisgirl, Nov 09 2001
   

       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.
—stupop, Nov 09 2001
   

       ...and does that mean if I'm leaving I go *up-and-over*?
—phoenix, Nov 09 2001
   

       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.
—dj_photon, Nov 12 2001
   

       ravenswood, well then it could function as some sort of automatic baptismal.
—RayfordSteele, Jan 10 2002
   

       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.   

       ISTR that one of the Oxford University buildings had one, but it was out of order when I visited. Bah.
—JKew, Jan 13 2002
   

       [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.
—mwburden, Jan 13 2002
   

       soory. I would prolly be upsidedown once in the bulding, so I fishbone this.
—FireElf, Jun 09 2006
   

       why would you be upsidedown, FireElf?
—BJS, Jun 10 2006
   

       Because that's the kind of thing he likes to do. Nothing personal, just his style.
—normzone, Jun 10 2006
   

       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?
—FireElf, Jun 10 2006
   

       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.   

       Sorry, wierd mood.
—James Newton, Jun 12 2006
   

       My dear [FireElf], why not read the first two annos on this idea. Hell, read all of them, there aren't that many.
—wagster, Jun 12 2006
   


 

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