I have a Dover Rotary hydro that is from the 1950s. Besides the Mac operator and some fire service upgrades its pretty much original. One of my garages has Westinghouse ERL. The oldest thing I ever took care of is the hydro.
When I had a route the oldest was an American Elevator-no car gate-wood rails-sash counterweight-dirt pit floor. The install was early 1920's. I have come across a Moline Elevator chain drive unit-early 1910's in donwtown Dallas.
I have a 3stop freight, constant pressure, no car gates, water hydro, runs off of 9 relays total. No data plate, or manufacturer, GE 10,000 ohm coils. It's old?
1929 Otis traction, 7 stop, manual scissor gate and manual sliding doors. Did have to put on a retiring cam for the hall doors as the original closers weren't reliably locking closed. all original otherwise, no overlays, has a car switch and some one running it 10hrs a day Monday threw Friday with pretty good traffic! the direction arrows in the hall on all floors are still driven off the cotton cords.
have any of you ever seen a manually operated freight elevator? By manually operated I mean one that you actually have to pull a rope to make it move. YOu have to constantly pull the rope to get the car to move. It actually has two speed with a centrifigul gear to change speeds. It also has wooden rails and all of that sort of thing. We had to look at it maybe fifteen years ago or so. The guy actually asked us if we could mod it. LOL.Funny part was the mor weight the easier the rope was to pull. I think if I remember correctly that it was from the late 1800's to maybe 1902? Pretty intersting elevator to say the least
Tiller rope manual elevator. We had one under maintenance in the mid 1980's when I first got in. We stopped working on it after the building started to make weird noises-it ended up coming out of the overhead-no one was hurt thankfully
We have a job with duplex Llewellyn gearless installed in 1930, the controller was moded in the early 80's with an MM II. This is the only Llewellyn gearless I have seen, saw a lot of geared.
Early 1900's Otis drum with wooden rails etc. I have some photos, perhaps someone might identify and help us pinpoint the age, or where they think the original motor was. I've heard stories of early otis Square/Pancake type motors but there isn't much room between the wall of the machine room and the shaft for a direct coupling, so perhaps it was always some type of belt drive configuration? http://mcareavy.wordpress.com/elevators/
Ever seen a steam powered elevator??? The one I saw had been modded with new drive sheave so it had steel cables!!! When it was new it had hemp rope... Birdcage type with the old Otis broken rope safety. It had about 4 relays with water dripping off everything from the steam lines.
No I wish I had. That unit was removed and went to the Transportation museum. This was about 20 years ago but It was believed the last steam powered elevator had been torn out 30 years before that. So who really knows what's still out there going up and down everyday.
(5) stop (3) stage telescopic water hydro built in 1895 in Worcester mass.
If there is a major fire in the city, there isn't enough water pressure to make it to the top floor.
We call them flush toilets because they run up on city water pressure and dump water into the sewer system to run down.
The shipper rope was replaced with a floor seeking controller made in our shop. The platform is wood as well as the three cab walls. The gates have barn door tracks and expanded metal.
Have to grease the pistons once a month because we can't use asbestos impregnated grease that used to last at least five years.
1896 Llewellyn basement Drum machine. Last patent date on Westinghouse motor is 1896. chain driven selector, 4 stop unit. Birdcage car installed inside a square, glass lined stairway. Bostwick collapsible gate. windowed Swing doors at landings Still in original operating condition.
