SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Elevators haven't changed much in 150 years; the controls got more sophisticated, but they basically remained a box pulled up by a cable, with one cab per shaft. This becomes a real problem as buildings get taller; the multiple shafts end up taking up a lot of valuable real estate, with only one little box in each. The cables get so heavy that you end up spending more energy moving cables than cab. As the buildings sway, the cables start swaying too. The elevators end up being a real limiting factor on the height of our buildings and the density of our cities, and a big factor in the high cost of high buildings.
...
Last year, ThyssenKrupp announced a solution to this problem: the MULTI lift system which gets rid of elevator cables, and instead runs each elevator cab as an independent vehicle on a vertical track, powered by linear induction motors. Because there were no cables, it meant that they could put more than one car in every shaft. In fact, they could put a continuous stream of them in.
...
And move it does, in the most remarkable ways, unlike any elevator ever built. The cabs rise up on the tracks, powered by the linear induction motors; when they reach the end, top, bottom or any point where they want to move sideways, a section of track rotates and the cab goes sideways.
Two words: motion sickness.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:56PM
The elevators end up being a real limiting factor on the height of our buildings
The tallest skyscraper at this point is 2,722 feet (829.8 m) tall — at that kind of ridiculous size, I'd think that wind, general structural integrity (in case of earthquakes), and problems like that would be more significant limiting factors.
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:42PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by DutchUncle on Monday November 09 2015, @03:31PM
The new 102-th floor NYC World Trade Center observation deck, like the old one, has a full-span elevator that takes under 1 minute.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday November 09 2015, @10:28PM
"...ever more Babelous towers..."
That was about the funniest thing I've read all day, leaving aside the UK Department of Health's implementation (i.e. it's all bass-ackwards) of what they call Lean Methodology. That said, I do have a slightly wonky sense of humour.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday November 10 2015, @08:45AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday November 09 2015, @01:37AM
I freely admit to being a wimp. I would loathe every second being in a building a quarter as tall.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday November 09 2015, @03:07AM
You would think so, but it is legitimately the case that in those tallest buildings, they need two distinct elevator shafts because the weight of the elevator cable becomes excessive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:26AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @12:30PM
Space elevators were never visioned as being pulled by cables.
A space elevator needs a cable, but the cable doesn't move. In fact the cable is so heavy that it will be held up by its own weight, by putting the center of balance in geosynchronous orbit. The cable will serve the same function as the track in this elevator - to have something for the elevator car to grip on to.
(Score: 1) by Osamabobama on Monday November 09 2015, @07:19PM
Our current space elevators are rocket powered, and independent of elevator shafts.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.