All highrise buildings have signage advising against using elevators in case of a building fire. If electricity is disconnected and no backup power replaces it you could get boiled inside the shaft. Makes sense, but it kind of sucks if you are infirm.
Why not design redundant emergency elevators which use eddy currents to lower passengers safely without an external power source?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 19 2009 Eddy http://www.youthink...quiz678outcome8.jpg [normzone, May 19 2009] Ed, Edd n' Eddy's escape http://www.youtube....watch?v=w33otQHJBoc [jaksplat, May 21 2009] The eddy currents would slow the passage of some protruberant elevator appendage through a magnet. Could this not be done with friction?
Plus what if some disabled guy on a lower floor gets there first. The eddy slowing thing only works going down, right?-- bungston, May 19 2009 I had pictured a collapsible gondola suspended beneath an electromagnetic disk which contains its own power source. The disk would be wider than the gondola, and the gondola would release when the disk reached bottom. The disk would then be whisked aside and be lifted to an available floor. A sensor brake system would be needed to keep cars from slamming into one another.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 20 2009 "A sensor brake system would be needed to keep cars from slamming into one another"
Well, that sums up most of our commutes.-- normzone, May 20 2009 I don't think the prohibition on elevator use is due to the elevators being unsafe (in terms of plummeting - being in an elevator that arrives at a floor that's very much on fire, and having the doors open is not a useful position to be in either) but more to do with making them exclusively available for use by the fire services.-- zen_tom, May 20 2009 some emergency brakes on elevators already use the eddy-currents.
Modern buildings have special elevators that can be operated in case of emergency with a key the fire department has. This way evacuating disabled persons gets easier, while the fire department still can have an eye on the safety of using the elevator.
Many elevators can not close their doors if there is smoke in the air, btw, overriding this safety-feature would endanger people to getting stuck between the doors, and leaving it in place will block the whole elevator-shaft if someone from a smokey floor has called the elevator.-- loonquawl, May 20 2009 You let me down Eddy.
You let me down big time.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 20 2009 /I had pictured a collapsible gondola suspended beneath an electromagnetic disk which contains its own power source. /
You have my bun only if the power source is an engine which runs off of a jug of diethyl ether stored alongside.-- bungston, May 20 2009 Of course. tsh!-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 21 2009 Eddy are you ok? Eddy are you ok? Are you ok Eddy?-- zen_tom, May 21 2009 Is that Crazy Eddie?-- lurch, May 21 2009 No, it's wacko Jacko!-- zen_tom, May 21 2009 He's got babies on spikes.-- theleopard, May 21 2009 For some bizzarre reason this reminds me of sending amputees into space.
I have to agree with the sentiment that providing the infirm and disabled access into the building should mean you provide them access to the outside of the building ICOE.
If Annie was shot by a smooth criminal, that would mean Eddy encountered a more turbulent one.-- 4whom, May 21 2009 random, halfbakery