The Elevator Preservation Blog

Pacific Coast Elevator Company Video

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Pretty cool video from Youtube user elevatortraction who has some great video’s on his page that relate to older elevators. This one at Antique Elevator at 92 Lonsdale Ave. in North Vancouver, British Columbia is no exception. The elevator was fabricate most likely in it’s entirety by Pacific Coast Elevator Company located in the Los Angeles Area.

Pacific Coast Elevator was a major manufacturer in the 1930’s and beyond. It was purchased in 1946 by Montgomery Elevator Company. It’s not clear whether the products that PECO manufactured continued on or if Montgomery started to phase the components out. If anyone has additional information to share on this please do so in the comments section below.

Thanks again to tractionelevator over on www.youtube.com for sharing this video.  The elevator looks to be original to when the building was built.

Tags: antique elevator video, Pacific Coast Elevator Company
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Series On Historic Fixtures / Fixture Of The Week, March 25th, 2010

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

By Jan L. Dumno

Elevator fixtures are the interface between man and machine. They are means of communication and subject to the design of their époque. Most of the significant and important improvements relating to elevators have been made to elevator controls – an efficient elevator control system determines to a large extend whether an installation can efficiently handle the building’s vertical traffic.

I think it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the elevator-components that visualize the development of elevator controls best: all the means of signaling and indicating the floors and their corresponding calls as well as the buttons, handles and switches for actually maneuvering the elevator-car.

There is no sub sequential timeline to follow; the use of many types of controls has been overlapping over decades. I can’t tell you a story with a clear path – systems were to different and so was elevator technologies between countries even within Europe. My preferred way to share a bit of my knowledge collected over the last 20 years of gathering information is to give a spotlight on interesting findings. I will do that by placing a “Fixture Of The Week” on elevatorpreservation.com each Friday – depending on my availability.

Fixture Of The Week, March 25^th, 2010

The Hydraulic Position Indicator By Officina Meccanica Ing. A. Stigler, Milano (Italy)

Most of us have seen older elevators with mechanically operated position-indicators where a pointer would sweep across a round- or shell-shaped scale with numbers. Some of us have seen mechanical position-indicators with a vertical type scale – but did anyone see a hydraulic position indicator?

Honestly, I haven’t seen one in real life too. All I know is that there has been a bunch of them in operation throughout Europe. They have been developed by the very famous Italian elevator-company of Augusto Stigler from Milano – one of Europe’s most important elevator-companies before World War II.

This type of indicator featured brass or wooden boxes next to each entrance of the elevator. Each box was equipped with a glass-tube, clearly visible by people waiting for the elevator to arrive. The floor numbers were marked on a scale next to the glass-pipe and a round plug, shaped like a miniature of the elevator-car, was placed in the glass-tube.

While the box was decoratively designed and placed outside the elevator shaft, the major part of the mechanism was placed inside the elevator-shaft. A small brass-tube was lead from the bottom of the glass-pipe through the wall to the inside of the shaft. From there, a flexible rubber-pipe was connected to a small reservoir made of brass. The reservoir was mounted to a rod or small cable leading from the top to the bottom of the shaft.

The rod or small rope that would carry all the reservoirs – each indicator at each floor has its own – would move up and down as the elevator car would move. This is very similar to an indicator-rope of a mechanical indicator-system; instead of making pointers move, Stigler’s hydraulic indicator lifts and lowers the reservoirs at the floors. Now that each of the reservoirs is connected to the glass-pipe next to the entrance via a rubber-hose, the trick is this:

If filled with water, the level of fluid will be the same in the glass-pipe as it is in the reservoir. The plug in the glass-pipe is very loose and it swims on the surface of the water. Thereby, it symbolizes the cabin. As soon as the elevator moves, the reservoirs are moved in the same direction and through the connection to the glass-pipe, the level of fluid would change accordingly and thereby cause the little swimming cab to ascend or descend.

The calibration of the indicator can simply be done by adding or draining water from the reservoirs.

Was this system a smart idea? Yes and no, I would say. To judge the quality of this invention, you have to consider the time when it was made. Adding a little bit of water every other week was no issue because personnel were available and dedicated to operate the elevator anyway. My concern would be more with calcium-deposits on the glass and with greenish alga in the water. This might be solved with using distillated water; the evaporation might be eased with a layer of oil on top of the water in the reservoir.

I don’t believe that I could find a single one in operation today – no-one would pay maintenance and repair for it. What I believe is that there are still some of these indicators, maybe covered by several layers of paint, being inoperative over decades. Also, there might be derelict elevators still having a hydraulic indicator. I’d love to have one for restoration for the technical collection. If anybody of you should ever come across one, be sure you let me know!

JLD

Images taken from “Der Aufzugbau” by Hugo Bethmann, Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, 1913

Tags: ascensori stigler, fixture of the week, hydraulic position indicator, indicatore idraulico, officina meccanica a. stigler, stigler
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Federal Tax Incentives For Building/Elevator Restoration Work

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Did you know that if you have an old historic building preserving the historic look of it can qualify it for a tax credit? What are the basic requirements that determine whether a project will be eligible for the 20% tax credit?

Answer
There are 4 factors that can help you decide whether your rehabilitation project proposal would meet the basic application requirements for the 20% tax credit.

1. The historic building must be listed in the National Register of Historic Places or be certified as contributing to the significance of a “registered historic district.”

Some eligible items include:
Walls
Partitions
Floors
Ceilings
Permanent coverings, such as paneling or tiles
Windows and doors
Components of central air conditioning or heating systems
Plumbing and plumbing fixtures
Electrical wiring and lighting fixtures
Chimneys
Stairs
Escalators, elevators, sprinkler systems, fire escapes
Other components related to the operation or maintenance of the building

Some ineligible items include:

Appliances
Cabinets
Carpeting (if tacked in place and not glued)
Decks (not part of original building)
Demolition costs (removal of a building on property site)
New construction costs or enlargement costs (increase in total volume)
Fencing
Feasibility studies
Financing fees
Furniture
Landscaping
Leasing expenses
Outdoor lighting remote from building
Parking lot
Paving
Planters
Porches and porticos (not part of original building)
Retaining walls
Sidewalks
Signage
Storm sewer construction costs
Window treatments

3. The project must meet the “substantial rehabilitation test.” In brief, this means that the cost of rehabilitation must exceed the pre-rehabilitation cost of the building. Generally, this test must be met within two years or within five years for a project completed in multiple phases.

4. The rehabilitation work must be done according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. These are ten principles that, when followed, ensure the historic character of the building has been preserved in the rehabilitation.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/tax/incentives/index.htm

Tags: elevator preservation, historic building tax credit
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment

Welcome Antique Elevator Aficionado!

Friday, May 1st, 2009

This blog is dedicated to those of us who have a real appreciation for elevators. Not just any elevator but ones that bring a bit of yesterday with each vertical trip.  You might call them antique, classic or turn of the century designed, we just call them cool!

Elevator and their operators where the life blood when buildings started to be built upward.  They gave buildings character and warmth with a friendly, “What Floor Please” when you entered.  They also usually acted as a security guard, knowing when offices were closed, tenants were on vacation and when visitors shouldn’t be on a certain floor.

This blog is made up of contributors who truly appreciate older elevators. If you are interested in becoming a contributor to this site please drop us a line at elevatorpreservation@gmail.com , we’d love to have you. If you see a photograph that you believe is copyrighted please let us know. All photographs and links are for non commercial purposes. It is not our intention to infringe on anyones copyright.

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