A note from the Elevator World ELENET - UPDATE ON FASTEST ELEVATORS: Due to earthquake structural damage to the Taipei International Financial Center, installation of the world's fastest elevators was delayed. Toshiba was awarded the contract in 1999 to provide 61 elevators and 50 escalators. Two of the elevator units are high-rise shuttles with a capacity of 1600kg and a speed of 17mps. The 34 double deckers have the same capacity and a speed of 9mps. A freight elevator has a capacity of 6500kg and a speed of 8mps. Installation completion is now the end of 2004. Reported by Peng Jie, China Correspondent

-- Don Vollrath (dvollrath@magnetek.com), January 09, 2003

Answers

There is an interesting article in the October 2002 issue of Elevator World magazine by J.W.Fortune of Lerch, Bates & Associates. In a nutshell, rapid decent from great heights causes objectionable air pressure changes in the ears of passengers. Worth reading to really understand the problem.

-- Don Vollrath (dvollrath@magnetek.com), August 25, 2003.