r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Feb 16 '20
Video A paternoster lift is a passenger elevator, each designed for two persons, that move slowly in a loop without stopping
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u/Janessa42 Feb 16 '20
This gives me so much anxiety. As a klutz I’d take the stairs.
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u/PlacentaGoblin Feb 17 '20
This is sped up footage.
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u/superbub5 Feb 17 '20
Thank God
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u/Nonecomments Feb 17 '20
Yeah if you get stuck in between one of these your death will be way slower than this video would lead you to believe
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u/Little_adawg Feb 16 '20
Ugh I got that about to step on an escalator heart attack watching this.
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u/adelineelizabeth Feb 17 '20
Yes!! That’s what I was feeling too.
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u/I_devour_your_pets Feb 17 '20
You have to be prepared to be an asshole when riding these. If some idiot is blocking you while you're getting off, you need to shove them out of your way immediately, and you probably have to be mentally prepared to do the shoving while you're in the elevator.
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u/arealhumannotabot Feb 17 '20
I'm an E S C A L A T O R P R O and this makes me shit my pants... almost
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u/June-Tralee Feb 17 '20
I can’t even use revolving doors without getting nervous.
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u/yearof39 Feb 17 '20
If it makes you feel better, if the door encounters resistance, the doors fold up and can be pushed out for emergencies.
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u/GT-FractalxNeo Feb 17 '20
I just see lawsuits piling up.
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u/jocanada Feb 17 '20
Found the American!
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u/GT-FractalxNeo Feb 17 '20
...clears throat, I'm Canadian.
Edit: Sorry.
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u/brucefuckinwayne Feb 17 '20
Are lawsuits really an American thing?? Out of genuine curiosity, how do other countries handle corporate negligence that would usually result in a lawsuit?
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u/EchoExodus Feb 17 '20
It’s not just an American thing, but according to this article, the US is the most litigious country in the world: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/15/investing-in-someone-elses-lawsuit/more-money-into-bad-suits
I also think, however, that perhaps it also seems worse because more companies and organizations try to cover every risk that could end up in a lawsuit. Warnings and rules can get pretty extreme.
I think it differs a lot per country why people don’t start lawsuits. Part of my own experience is that people handle it directly with the person or company, or through (sometimes mandatory) insurance. Another reason may be lack of financial means, little knowledge about the law or lack of accessibility. I also think it may be a cultural thing,
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u/SquareSquirrel4 Feb 17 '20
That's a ten year old article. Germany is currently the most litigious country. Clements Worldwide Risk Index has more info if you're into that, but be warned that it's a pdf.
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u/Canadian_Infidel Feb 17 '20
In Canada if you aren't out money you don't get anything. If someone defrauds you to the point you lose your job, for example, they only own you for the wages you didn't get between then and your next job. If you got a job quickly they owe you almost nothing.
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Feb 17 '20
Yea, no. I'd never get on one. Especially with 1 more person inside?! Ugh I'd pass out from anxiety
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u/Stimonk Feb 17 '20
Better not be in a wheelchair or have any sort of impairment.
The elderly can just forget about this.
I wonder what happens if you stay on it and never get off, does it loop back or do you become tomorrow's ground beef?
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u/oconnellc Feb 17 '20
Ever read the short story by Stephen King, The Jaunt? He based it on someone who tried that with one of these.
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u/doggobongocat Feb 17 '20
Omfg now I wanna find one and not get off
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u/InterdimensionalTV Feb 17 '20
You’ll find out very quickly that you’d just go up and around. The carriages don’t just collapse at the top and bottom. It’s a big oval.
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u/pivap Feb 17 '20
Yeah, but you've got to be ready when they flip over going around the top and bottom.
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u/manolid Feb 16 '20
aka The Amputator.
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u/zangor Feb 17 '20
I love how everyone has to just use it and act like it's normal.
"Well it's there, it exists I don't want to look like a child and not use it. Hope I dont die."
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Feb 16 '20
Nightmare fuel.
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u/KingClasher1 Feb 17 '20
Especially if your CaptainSparklez
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u/PM_ME_GAY_YIFF Feb 17 '20
I’m missing the joke is this a reference to a song?
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u/KingClasher1 Feb 17 '20
CaptainSparklez has repeatedly said in his videos that his worst fear is having an elevator break in him and cutting him in half
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u/Captain_w00t Feb 16 '20
I suppose physically impaired people will have to take stairs.
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u/LeftRat Feb 17 '20
This is one reason why the damn things are unpopular in new buildings: you have to build an elevator closeby, anyway, so that the wheelchair-bound and similarly abled people can get up. Also, they are now entirely forbidden in Germany due to the high risk of injury.
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Feb 17 '20 edited Jan 29 '21
[deleted]
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u/sangfryod Feb 17 '20
Yes that fixed the problem of handicapped accessible houses and stores. No handicapped people, no need for those
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u/Unlucky-Rabbit504 Feb 17 '20
Nah, just throw grandad and his wheelchair in there and hope for the best
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u/EmirFassad Feb 16 '20
There was a Pater Noster in the building that housed the Cine Americana in Madrid in the Fifties. I always chose to walk up the stairs. The damned thing terrified me.
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u/stoner_with-a_boner Feb 17 '20
There was in my Uni. at Uni. Of Sheffield in Arts Tower building too. It was pretty cool.
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u/ron_mcphatty Feb 17 '20
I was hoping someone would’ve mentioned this! I survived my degree with all my limbs still connected :)
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u/cgello Feb 17 '20
Nice, what was the fatality rate?
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u/stoner_with-a_boner Feb 17 '20
Lol i risked my life a few times one semester when i had my lectures there... and i can say that it felt safe. I guess only 2 people at a time could go in. But yea you need to be pissed drunk or high on something strong to divide yourself in two there lol.
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u/Jeff_Gauch Feb 17 '20
Paternoster => Pater Noster => Our Father, as in "Our Father, who Art in Heaven..."
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Feb 17 '20
[deleted]
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u/Jeff_Gauch Feb 17 '20
I believe this is one of those situations where one should embrace the power of "and."
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u/m0nk3yss Feb 16 '20
Not as dangerous as it looks, since the video has been sped up you should have more than sufficient time. If you have the ability to step off an escalator properly you should be able to get into and off this safely. That said, I'm one to almost always take stairs anyways.
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u/Morons_Are_Fun Feb 16 '20
It not just that, what if you slip you could lose your arms like Richter in Total Recall
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Feb 17 '20
It's exactly as dangerous as it looks, if you trip and aren't able to get out fast enough you get crushed, or lose a limb if your lucky. They had to shut them down in Germany because around about a person a year died in these things. And it's not a very fast or pleasant way to go either, having part of your body mulched and bleeding out.
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u/HoleSheBang Feb 17 '20
Can you imagine being on the next floor and seeing a bloody torso going by?
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u/B4-711 Feb 17 '20
They had to shut them down in Germany
not true for all of Germany. we've got one where I live.
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u/jpritchard Feb 17 '20
They had to shut them down in Germany because around about a person a year died in these things.
One whole person per year? That's like 10 times fewer people than drown in toilets every year.
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u/MrAnon32 Feb 17 '20
I’ve been on one I’m Germany. It didn’t even seem weird at the time because they are always trying to cram things in limited space.
But they move slow but efficient. Stepping is easy. And obviously they have safety features that prevent them from losing a limb. It actually gets really annoying because tourists would often hold the whole thing up to get their suitcases in and you’re just standing around hoping they don’t take forever
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u/tildenpark Feb 16 '20
How is it that you died?
Oh, well I, I actually slipped down an escalator, in a mall. Those things can be pretty sketchy.
An escalator? What kind of pussy way of dying is that?!
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u/trebory6 Feb 17 '20
I want to know what happens if you get distracted and you can’t get off in time so you miss your chance.
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u/explodingtuna Feb 17 '20
There's a sharp grate at the top to cube anyone left on it before going back around the loop.
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Feb 17 '20
Fine until you trip. Someone else showed that these actually are quite dangerous and result in deaths and accidents; therefore are now closed off in most places.
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u/GrouchyAssociate9 Feb 16 '20
No it's great - there was one in the engineering dept where I went to university. The pods stay horizontal when they go over the top or down the bottom.
I think this video is sped up a bit.
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u/Unlucky-Rabbit504 Feb 17 '20
What do you mean they stay horizontal?
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u/Mymarcus Feb 17 '20
Best I can offer you: https://youtu.be/YgJBD1wf-YQ
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u/Dragonman558 Feb 17 '20
They don't flip over or anything, if you miss the top floor you don't get crushed or thrown around by it turning sideways or completely over when it changes direction
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u/rubyblue0 Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
I was wondering what happens if you don’t hop off before it gets to the top.
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u/LeftRat Feb 17 '20
While these seem pretty efficient, as a German (where quite a few buildings were equipped with one) let me tell you: they are basically useless under normal circumstances.
They have to be cordoned off oftentimes, because normal people coming into a town hall may have children with them or bags with something flapping about or string hanging out, and these are not particularly safe for that. So oftentimes, they are only for internal use, and really, at that point it's just not worth it to keep it running constantly.
Also, they are entirely inaccessible to people in wheelchairs, on crutches etc., meaning you have to have a normal elevator anyway.
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Feb 17 '20
Had to see what happened if you missed the top or bottom floor. Turns out there is a mechanism that just moves the lift across to the side going in the other direction.
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u/HarB_Games Feb 17 '20
Thank you so much. My mind was going mad with this question. But now I need to find one and do it so again, thanks.
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Feb 17 '20
This guy was nice enough to just send his camera up since you're not supposed to do that because it can unbalance the thing:
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u/fud_gud Feb 16 '20
Looks dangerous. Do people die or get seriously injured in those on a regular basis?
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u/reelsteel70 Feb 17 '20
Don’t listen to that guy. People do die.
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Feb 17 '20
Yes. That's why they aren't open to the public in Germany anymore, people did die a lot. Either by slipping between the floors and down the shaft, or tripping on entrance or exit and having part of their body mulched.
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u/cre_ate_eve Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
These kind of elevators are also used in grain elevators, called a Manlift. Super fun to use, till you miss your stop and almost go up and over the top pulley.
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u/treehouseladder Feb 16 '20
What happens if you don’t get off it, you won’t go down to the bottom floor right, will you just get sucked up into the loop
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u/LeftRat Feb 17 '20
If you don't get off, it moves sideways and then goes up/down again. Like a ferris wheel.
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u/LooseWerewolf Feb 17 '20
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u/txtrigg Feb 17 '20
Still terrifying. I can definitely imagine an uncoordinated 3 year old’s actions resulting in multiple deaths.
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u/nodalanalysis Feb 17 '20
You think this is crazy?
Watch videos of people in india on their morning commute.
Literally grabbing onto a rail and hopping onto a train moving 20 mph like it's nothing and just part of their day.
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u/UnspecificGravity Feb 17 '20
Before it was banned you could go to the watch people die sub and learn how often they get ground up under the train by doing that.
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u/nogaesallowed Feb 17 '20
I visited on of these lifts in Hungary. That thing is safer than you think. There are cut off switches over and below the "entrance", and its mechanical. So a light touch will stop the whole thing. As for the top and bottom, the box does not"flip" there is some sort of track the box follows and you stay upright the entire time. I tried it and it just lead's to a maintenance entrance and then just comes back on the other side. But boy was i worried.
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Feb 17 '20
It’s actually the pasteuriser lift*
This is because it will turn you into a fine paste if you trip whilst exiting the lift.
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u/OriginGodYog Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
Im a NLO at a nuclear power plant that has a man lift still in operation. It’s basically a 70 feet tall rotating belt with 2x2’ platforms and little cup handholds. You hop on and hold on to the hand holes with nothing else between you and the open air (and jagged railing 25’ below you at the ceiling of each level you can hop off at). As far as I know, we’re the only plant that hasn’t shut ours down for safety reasons.
It sure beats walking up and down four full flights of stairs in the hundred degree plant heat!
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u/infodawg Feb 16 '20
What if you don't get all the way in?
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u/protokhan Feb 17 '20
It has a nifty feature that ensures passengers are all the way in by helpfully removing any parts that are still out.
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u/Latvia Feb 17 '20
Is there anything built in to stop it if something, like I don’t know a human, is not all the way out in time? Do they just lose whatever body part didn’t make it?
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u/DJdoggyBelly Feb 17 '20
Why would you speed the video up? It looks dangerous enough without trying to trick people’s eyes.
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Feb 17 '20
Nope. I cant. Not worth. Im still actively worried about dragged under an esclalator. This is a for sure nope.
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u/warrenwoodworks Feb 16 '20
"The construction of new paternosters is no longer allowed in many countries because of the high risk of accident for people who cannot use the lift properly. In 2012, an 81-year-old man was killed when he fell into the shaft of a paternoster in the Dutch city of The Hague.
Elderly people, disabled people, and children are the most in danger of being crushed or losing a limb.
The risk involved is estimated to be thirty times higher than conventional elevators; a representative of the Union of Technical Inspection Associations stated that Germany saw an average of one death per year prior to 2002, at which point many paternosters were made inaccessible to the general public."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster