enthalpy

enthalpy

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The truth shall set you free, but first it's going to piss you off

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Posted 4/15/2008 05:20:00 PM by Douglas

Fascinating story of the most banal part of a building: the elevator, and one guy's terrifying entrapment.

Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment. The population of the earth would ooze out over its surface, like an oil slick, and we would spend even more time stuck in traffic or on trains, traversing a vast carapace of concrete. And the elevator is energy-efficient—the counterweight does a great deal of the work, and the new systems these days regenerate electricity. The elevator is a hybrid, by design.

And don't miss the security video of the forty one hours he was stuck in the damn thing, as at least four different shifts of security guards sat idly by. Yeah, I think I'd sue too.

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