For some reason or another, I find elevators to be pretty fascinating.
I’m partial to glass elevators because they give you a glimpse of their mechanisms,
like the door operator that sits atop the cab and...
operates the doors.
Or the landing doors themselves, with this one marked UL
which I think stands for "unsightly lever".
I think part of why I find them so interesting is that we very much take them for granted
when they’re often packed with interesting technologies.
Many are simply platforms atop a hydraulic ram.
Others like these are suspended by cables
which (usually) loop around a large drum-like thing at the top of the shaft,
which with the help of the counterweight moves the cab
in either direction without expending much energy at all.
Then there are weird hybrids like this.
Seriously, this is weird.
Two pistons on either side, and what’s with the the cables here?
Anyway, limit switches help tell the controller where the cab is, safety interlocks prevent
the elevator from moving unless all the landing doors are closed and locked, and lots of other
neat things work together to make these moving boxes functional and safe.
In this video, I’d like to highlight a simple accessibility feature that’s nearly everywhere
(in the US at least), but that you might have never noticed.
The Americans with Disabilities Act defines an elegant solution for the blind that is
obvious once you know what it is, but that may have simply never crossed your mind.
Most elevators will have some sort of indicator for which direction it’s going.
Often you see them in the hallway, in which case they are called hall lanterns, and I’m
sure you’ll have noticed that it lights either the up or down arrow
(or other shape).
They’re not always in the hall, though, sometimes they’re inside the elevator itself.
In either case, they usually make a sound.
But have you ever really paid attention to that sound?
Many elevators will chime to announce their presence.
Take a listen:
[ding]
Now, that chime isn’t there just to be pleasant.
It has a very important purpose.
For the majority of us with sight, we can see which elevator has arrived
and which direction it’s going.
But not all of us are sighted.
You’ll have likely noticed the braille adjacent to the floor buttons or the call buttons.
Elevators after all are an accessibility device, and to be accessible to the blind, the braille
is added.
But that chime is also an accessibility device.
Pretend for a moment that you don’t have access to any visual information.
Here’s how that chime can help.
You’ve pressed the down call button, and now you’re waiting for the elevator to arrive.
The one on your left arrives,
[chime]
but you know not to get in it.
You haven’t heard the right sound.
[chime, chime]
Ah, that one’s yours.
In the US, in order for an elevator to be ADA compliant, it needs to produce a single
audible signal for the up direction
[chime]
and a double audible signal if it’s going down
[chime, chime]
You might be surprised how nearly universal this is.
Here’s just a small sample of elevators which follow this convention.
I shot all of these with just my phone, so apologies for the quality.
This elevator is signalling up.
[ping]
Now the same elevator going down.
[ping]
This one’s going up.
[bing]
And now down.
[bing]
Up.
[ting]
Down.
[ting]
And now, a bunch more, all going down.
[ring]
[bwang]
[doot]
This one wants to be extra sure you got the signal.
[DOOT]
[bwawnng]
[deet]
[deeee]
[bong]
[ding]
In some of Schindler’s Lifts, you’ll discover a signal that isn’t just the same sound
twice, but a two-tone version that’s definitely not obnoxious.
[Ding-Dong]
Then, someone at Otis decided to copy them, but make the sound barely audible.
[tin-
kle]
Of course there are others that not only chime twice
[fing]
but then just come right out and say
which way they’re going.
[Going down] (in the smarmiest voice imagineable)
These are really great for the visually impaired, because you’ll not only know that the elevator is
*going down*
but also that it has reached the
*first floor*.
But on the landing, just a simple audible cue is enough.
In fact it can be so simple that it’s just ringing a bell.
[clang]
I’m a big believer in accessibility features like this, in fact that’s the main reason
I caption nearly all of my videos.
And I really love subtle, almost unnoticeable things like this.
Maybe you have noticed a double chime before.
And maybe you already knew what it meant.
But many people, in fact I’d wager the majority, haven’t yet put two and down together.
What inspired this quick video was a clip I heard on the radio.
A crowded office building, and an elevator arriving with a Ding Ding.
The subject aks, is this going up?
And I, in sync with the passengers, said “no, down”.
I really don’t know when I first learned this little tidbit but ever since it’s been
kind of a neat novelty.
And it’s also fun to find the exceptions.
In fact, I live in a building which is bucking the trend.
In a lot of older buildings, there may not have been a signal of any kind.
So, to make their elevators compliant, a signal is added in the cab, right next to the door.
Now, these elevators were updated in the last five years or so from their original 1970’s
equipment (which sadly removed what I’m sure was a charming floor indicator in favor
of this boring thing).
And right here you’ll find a new-looking pair of arrows.
But you’ll also see that they don’t do anything.
This is what they’re probably supposed to do.
[synonym for ding I haven't used yet]
It’s my guess that the residents in my building got fed up with this noise (it is after all
fairly loud) and got the elevator company to disable it.
And the chime is probably integral to the indicators, as I see no reason to disable
the lights in any other case.
But now these elevators aren’t technically ADA compliant.
Oops?
It may have been better to lower the volume if possible, as the chime only needs to be
10 decibels above ambient sound levels.
That’s how Otis gets away with this.
[tin-
kle]
Anyway, now you know why the elevator sometimes chimes twice.
It usually just means it’s going down.
I’m curious to know if this is a standard around the world.
It seems like it could be, but a little web searching (admittedly very little) didn’t
turn anything useful up.
To the 56% of my viewers that aren’t in the US, please leave a comment to your country’s
practices in this matter.
I be a wee bit curious.
Thanks for watching.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a lift.
♫ excruciatingly smooth jazz ♫
Oh sure, ThyssenKrupp, those are totally real dot matrix LED displays.
Definitely real.
While trying to get some footage of these elevators being all busy-like, I happened
to film what at first I thought was a malfunction.
But then, the landing doors opened and hotel team member started cleaning the top of the cab.
I gotta give props to this hotel because they (apparently fairly regularly) are mopping
the tops of these elevators to keep them nice and clean.
By the way, this was the winner in my mind for the most pleasant chime.
[bong]
That is aside from this.
[clang]
I’ll take a mechanical bell any day.
That’s a good idea.