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Vacuum-Controlled Elevator Developed
Aenox writes "Vacuum Elevators of Florida have released a one-man elevator system that easily slots into buildings. It has gone on sale in the U.S. for around $20,000 and uses only electricity to power vaccum-inducing suction turbines that can lift 204Kg several floors up. They claim it provides a smooth ride but from the video it looks like it could use some oil."
But O'Connor adds that a series of mechanical breaks will activate should there be a sudden loss of pressure, to prevent the capsule falling.
I'm glad to see this because this was my first thought on watching the video. I can imagine all sorts of overly dramatic Hollywood type scenarios...... Cut the power to the building.....drama ensues. Or, a couple of well placed bullets into the side of the plexiglas causing a sudden implosion and dramatic falling of the lift. Also, one would want to ensure there are no leaks from the capsule to the inside of the lift tube. That sort of thing could play havoc on your eardrums, sinuses and eustachian tubes. Ask anyone who has been in a plane when they open a cargo door before completely equalizing the pressure in the cabin...... Wow, talk about uncomfortable.
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Does NewScientist.com have editors?
Call me picky, but if you're doing a professional publication, there are some standards you ought to uphold.
But O'Connor adds that a series of mechanical breaks will activate should there be a sudden loss of pressure, to prevent the capsule falling.
Well. this certainly doesn't sound promising. I would think that in the event of a sudden loss of pressure, the elevator would 'break' quite satisfactorily on its own, without the need for additional mechanical help.
The elevator costs between $20,000 and £22,000.
That's actually quite a large price range, once you figure out the exchange rate.
Clearly someone over at NewScientist.com is asleep at the switch. The sad fact is that this is nothing new....even sadder is the fact that this sort of thing is now acceptable, even in professional publications.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The elevator costs between $20,000 and £22,000.
Sweet. My new Prius gets between 812448 RPH and 48 MPG. I think I've saved enough on gas to get one of these...
Futurama here we come!
Have you metaroderated recently?
the world's largest penis pump. Good grief, I can't believe I just said that.
Rick : I think Richard Harrelson has them.
Mr. Johnson : Get Richard in here NOW !
Zoooooooof - plop
It seems there's no shield between the occupant and the sides of the stationary tube.
If that is true there could be risks if stuff (like clothing) gets caught at the wrong places... Not very high I suppose - it's just like using an escalator - if you careless/stupid enough to get something caught you better hope it rips rather than you rip...
... 204 Kg = ~450 lbs
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
If it was developed by Microsoft it would probably not suck. ;)
:w!q
There are only 96 people in the US that it can actually lift....
oops make that 74, McDonalds are doing an all you can eat special today.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Use your imagination... sad, but true.
Simpy
Laziness and status aside;
The real answer is for the Elderly and the disabled. IF you check out That Home Site you'll find a lot of interest in residential elevators. If it isn't feasible to buy a single level house, an elevator allows you full access to your entire abode.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Elevator1.mpeg
Courtesy of mirrordot.org.
"The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly" - Touchstone,Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
Working videos (for now) here:
http://www.vacuumelevators.com/video.htm
Because people who use walkers love running up and down the stairs.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
An elevator that is sucked up a tube... I can feel my ears popping just thinking about it.
The primary market for residential elevators is for the elderly and wheelchair bound. From what I can see, this elevator isn't stable or safe enough for a frail elderly person, and it isn't large enough to fit a wheelchair or scooter.
So the only market for this thing is going to be for rich people who'd rather blow money on a toy than take the stairs. While I'm sure there's a market for that, it's not going to be a big one.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
Mirrordot mirror for the video mentioned:4 8a61bc5c74f/Elevator1.mpeg
http://mirrordot.org/stories/9c88d25a2a2d153850db
Dependency hell? =>
for my Grandmother whose mobility was starting to wane. It was powered by water pressure (from a regular tap (faucet)) on the way up with a valve controlling the water release for a smooth ride down. I have always wondered how it was able to provide enough lift (it still puzzles me today). Regular water pressure? I must take my camera next time I venture there. He's a metal-worker by trade (specifically I'm not sure) so the quality of the structure is first class.
SOmething's really odd here -- the people who would most need this are folks who are in wheelchairs. And yet the tube is clearly too narrow for any sort of handicapped person. Why invent a freaking elevator for the people who don't need one? Do they have a handicapped version? Looking at the size of the capsule, I doubt a person with arm braces could fit in there. It seems really cruel to make an easy-to-install elevator that won't fit the people who need it.
They claim it provides a smooth ride but from the video it looks like it could use some oil
Hmm I guess this elevator really sucks then...
Thanks, I'm here until Wednesday, try the veal!
http://www.titaniumtorrents.com/torrents-details.p hp?id=26
Direct Link http://www.titaniumtorrents.com/download.php?id=26 &name=Vaccum%20elevators.torrent
Aha, so there's prior art? Then I guess we won't see them succeed at patenting it, if they try.
I've heard that many an inventor has been foiled by prior art in fantasy movies. I move that we declare fantasy movies illegal, in order to protect intellectual property. Fantasy/scifi movies are like pirating the future!
Signature.
news flash:
elevators don't run on guinea pig droppings. All modern elevators (excepting perhaps the Space Elevator) run on ONLY electricty.
Did I miss something here?
The truth about Led Zep should never be told on
He stole my story I tried to post yesterday, and I had a better tag line too:
2005-05-06 18:01:29 Elevator from Futurama! (Hardware,Technology) (rejected)
and a better description.
This elevator comes in 2 modes: 2 floor mode and a 3 floor mode. It is easy to install, you only need to make a round hole in the floor/ceiling and put the round tube-shaft through it. It works by pumping the air out of the tube from the top (a pump generates 87dBA of noise,) and since the pressure underneath the cabin stays the same, the cabin goes up.
Safety is guaranteed by a mechanical lock that stops the cabin dead in case if pressure under the cabin becomes weaker than the pressure from above. On the other hand if electricity cut off from the pump, the cabin wouldn't get stuck between the floors, it would slide down slowly due to slow pressure venting.
There is a clever cabin ventilation scheme...
anyway, this thing looks a lot like the mode of transportation used in Futurama and my last sentence was:
Now I wish someone came up with an american favorite Suicide Booth, then my day would be complete.
You can't handle the truth.
...like it would really suck.
While still a clever design, this is a giant step backwards because it does not provide positive position control. Vacumn just provides a force, not a means of controlling position. From the video it looked like he had to tweak the elevator position before he could open the door.
As for opening the door above the car while it's running, remember there is a vacumn holding the door shut with at least a few hundred lbf.
It would seem to me that there's a limit to the amount of vacuum you can get above an elevator, but no limit in the pressure you could generate below it. I mean, if the elevator is 4 feet across, then the absolute theoretical limit of wieght that could be pulled up by suction (assuming standard sea-level pressure) would be...
interesting. Google can't parse:
(pi * ((inches in 1 foot * 2)^2) * psi in 1 atm) / lbs in 1 ton
but substituting in values, you get:
(pi * ((12 * 2)^2) * 14.6959488) / 2000 = 13.2965812
OK. I guess that's not so very strange after all. In a 4 foot wide elevator, you can lift 13 tons with a hard vacuum above it. Damn. 15psi sure does add up quick.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
A rather low resolution image is
Here
Probably a better example is Aloha Airlines flight 243, which looked a whole shitload worse.
Check out the picture on page 2
Only one fatality, which is kind of amazing if you look at the pictures (flight attendant blown out).
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It could have been Microsoft powered ... because MS sucks pretty hard.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
This company is from florida. As someone else stated before, a piston elevator would need a hole as deep as the elevator is high. When you are in florida, if you dig down, water comes out. This elevator is good for homes that cant dig for a pneumatic piston and cant have a huge pulley system to pull the elevator. They'll probably use it for two floor hotel suites and things like that.
Do'h just realised if there was low pressure above and high pressure below, the passenger wouldn't be able to breath. Also, didn't lifts with hand doors die in the 50's? fitting a sliding door to that sucker doesn't sound like an easy task. So again, why the fuck would anyone want this?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
... Using a sentence fragment.
I agree with you, in this particular case. Although no one particularly cares about grammatical rules, which really are flexible, the article is just wrong. Breaks are very different from brakes, and dollars are not pounds. This isn't a small spelling/grammar issue, it's factual inaccuracy.
This elevator looks too small to accomodate a wheel chair. So, the only people who can use it are those who don't need it.
For the price of this elevator, you could install a full size elevator. I have used one elevator that I am told cost $30,000 to install and that included boring a vertical shaft and horizontal tunnel through the side of a mountain. For considerably less cost, you could build a single person elevator.
They claim that the elevator saves energy because it uses gravity on the descent. What they don't tell you is that it uses more than twice as much energy on the way up as a similarly sized elevator using the conventional counterweight design. A counterweight elevator only has to raise the weight of the occupants since the weight of the car is balanced out by the counterweight. Indeed, the counterweight might be as much as the weight of the car plus maximum occupancy load, in which case the elevator needs to use power to lower the car and only needs to release the brakes and overcome friction to raise. Futher, the inefficency of the vacuum pump could be considerable.
A hydraulic elevator of the size shown could also have been constructed using a cable or chain over a piston that travels half the distance as the elevator car (same design as used on many forklifts). This would be simpler, more reliable, and avoid the dynamic load problem described below. The design could be as compact and "portable" as the vacuum elevator.
Vacuum induced lift is a constant force rather than constant displacement technology. This is a very serious problem. When you step off the car, you can expect it to spring upwards. They probably hide this serious problem by making an elevator that can only serve two floors. At the top floor, you drive into a hard stop. At the bottom floor, you do not allow the door to open until the vacuum cylinder is fully vented. On a multifloor design, you could have a mechanical lock that engages before the door opens but then when the lock released there would be a sudden jolt if the passenger was not the same weight as the previous passenger (if any).
The large seals required and the fact that they must operate past doorways (unlike a hydraulic lift) will lead to significant maintenence problems.
This product looks to be pure gimmick. The technology used and other aspects of the design are totally inappropriate to the task.