Things You Didn’t Know About Elevators

Regular blog readers will know I am not an enormous fan of some of the whackier national days out there and today is no exception – National Talk In An Elevator Day. But, do you know what? As I looked into this one I discovered all sorts of interesting things I bet you didn’t know about elevators!

Things You Didn’t Know About Elevators

A Brief History Of Elevators

• Archimedes is credited with creating the first elevator in 336BC
• Early ones were open (not closed like today) and operated manually or using animals. That gives me a great idea of how to get groceries to the kitchen from the car which is one floor down. Now I just need to train the dogs…
• In the 18th century King Louis IV of France had the first ever passenger elevator constructed so he could easily visit his mistress on the second floor (honestly, you couldn’t make this up).
• Two British architects invented the steam elevator in 1853 (go Brits).
• In 1852 Elisha Otis created the safety brake and founded his own elevator company.
• Otis Tufts, patented an elevator design that had doors that opened and closed automatically and benches inside (what happened to benches? How civilized to sit in an elevator!).

For those of you interested in facts you can read more detail and more interesting stuff here.

National Talk in An Elevator Day

This National Day was introduced in response to the ‘awkward silence’ among groups of people using elevators (which are called lifts in the UK by the way). The idea being that on this day people make an effort to talk to others when riding with them in an elevator.

I guess it is the enclosed space that makes this different to standing at a bus stop or in a queue at the coffee shop. It is a total invasion of our personal space. Personal space is the physical space surrounding someone which, if invaded by someone else, makes the person feel uncomfortable or intimidated.

I remember going to a workshop once where we tested out the theory of personal space. While some people would shudder if someone was ten feet behind them, some could cope with people being so close as to almost touching them. Which takes us to my personal elevator story.

Invasion Of My Personal Space And Then Some

I have an elevator story that is relevant for our times I guess. When I was in my late 20s I worked in London in a big tower block. I had long slender legs (honest! Those were the days…) and wore three inch high stiletto heel shoes. This is relevant to my story!

One day I get in the elevator and had to go to the top of the tower, about eight floors above where I work. It stops on every floor of course. A man I don’t know is in the lift when I enter. At the next floor lots of people get in so it is quite crowded. Next thing I know, this guy is much closer to me than he needs to be, even allowing for the people in the lift. I realize he is breathing quite heavily and that the thing pressing into my rear is not his briefcase. No words are necessary. I step backwards really hard so my heel is on his foot and skewer it down as heavy as I can.

I am pleased to say the guy gasped, backed off but didn’t say anything. At the next floor he limped out of the elevator. Job done.

Then there was the time on the underground…

No Elevators Day

Can you believe there is a National No Elevators Day? (I can believe anything, honestly). It is held on the last Wednesday in April and it started in 2014. They even produced a video of it in the European Parliament.  The aim of course is a good one. It is to promote physical activity but you would need to use the stairs daily if this is really going to help with weight control and/or physical fitness.

Given my arthritic knees I can sign up quite happily now to only doing it once a year. Remember my story about my Mum having to walk down nine floors of stairs at the hospital recently – it took her days to recover from it!

If you are interested here is a video about No Elevators Day explained by members of the European Parliament.

The Perfect Elevator Pitch

No I had never heard of this either! I am amazed how many videos and websites are focused around ‘the elevator pitch’. It is all about recognizing the importance of networking. You never know when or where you might meet someone who could offer you a job (or in my case buy some art). Having an elevator pitch gives you a way to answer a question in a clear way. This short video explains it quite well I think.

It makes a lot of sense actually!

My Elevator Pitch

An equivalent for an artist like me I suppose is when someone says ‘Oh so your an artist, how interesting, what sort of art do you do?’. I can’t just say ‘PhotoArt’ as it doesn’t mean much to people on its own. But I realize I actually do have an ‘elevator pitch’ for this one and it is plastered in one form or another across my website and portfolio.

I specialize in PhotoArt. I use my own photographs and work on them on the computer to develop the story that I can see in the picture by using colors and textures.

Using a few examples of my work works well so that I can explain the difference between the photograph I took originally and the final piece of art.

Other questions I might get asked where an elevator pitch could be useful:

• Do you sell your work? Answer: Yes I sell local prints. You can buy from me directly or you can buy larger prints of my work online. Some images are also available on home decor products. So if you don’t have room on your wall you can still buy art for the room.
• Do you accept commissions? I hate this one as everyone thinks I will leap to produce some work for them but experience has taught me caution.  Answer: Yes on occasion depending on what is required. As I create PhotoArt I prefer to use my own photographs as the base for the piece. I am happy to discuss it with you.

I expect my artist friends could add many more to the list!

Classic Elevator Film Scene

Let me leave you with my favurite elevator scene from a film. An excerpt from The Pink Panther.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Thank you for reading!