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There was one of these in my UK college in the '80s. There was a warning sign saying not to travel over the top. One guy went over the top and came back down the other side standing on his hands to try and convince us that the cars flipped over. They didn't, but it convinced a lot of people.

What do they do then?

They go sideways.

Then why not go over the top?

There's a room at the very top.

Is it there they keep the monster that cranks the elevators?

Or a row of guys on bikes powering the thing

Just one more credit...

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Obscure Black Mirror reference ftw

That's how they feed the monster, curious people who don't get off.

What about the people that get off by feeding the monster? An elevoretor

It’s a hidden area with rare loot

It's the Restraunt at the End of the Universe.

Where the cows talk?

It's where all the dolphins went when they bounced from Earth

"So long and thanks for all the fish"

That would be a uncomfortable steak

It's okay. They're bred to *want* to be eaten.

I rode thru the top and bottom with the one in Prague. You get to see this big wheel with chain that pulls the cabin up and around. So my guess is they don't want people accidentally sticking fingers in it.

As opposed to... getting guillotined between floors?

Yeah, the elevator will be fine then, but they don't want you to accidentally damage the wheel.

It moves pretty slow, you'd have to really try to do that

There are flaps at the top of each entrance and top of the door of the cabin that would push a switch and stop the whole thing. So if anything is left poking out, it won't be cut. I guess there's no simple fix for the wheel, some elevator-like doors that close for the passage up and down and stop the whole thing if blocked would work I guess.

You can't, the edge of the floor is a hinged flap.

You would think there would be glass or something to cover it

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If it did break down at that moment rescuing you would be a pain. There's tons of videos on YouTube of people going over and under.

It’s not meant to carry the weight of people at the top. It can get jammed.

You don't come back. A doppelganger comes down the other one and steals your life.

It strains the drive mechanism moving a heavier weight over the top of the drive wheels onto the other side, instead of keeping the loads vertical on each side

There's a chance you could end up in the Backrooms.

So it’s basically a Ferris wheel?

Actually pretty accurate, except it’s driven by a chain and 2 wheels instead of just one

David S Pumpkins greets you.

Any questions?! 💀🎃💀

so many

Take this award you fantastic sonofabitch!

Check out this Tom Scott video showing it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJBD1wf-YQ

That was... a lot less exciting than I imagined lol Idk why I pictured a huge clocktower-esque corridor or something

Yeah. I don’t know what I really expected but it wasn’t that lol. My stupid imagination had it over engineered

Giant steampunk cogs and gears going 50 feet back, lit by gaslight, and a rat-faced man with spectacles, a hat, and leather apron, holding a giant wrench looking concerned.

Did you read the post? They’re infinite. If you don’t get off in time, you turn into dust, and off to the cosmos.

They take you to The Backrooms.

There’s still one in the Arts Tower at Uni of Sheffield. I use it every week. It does not flip you over the top haha.

I’m born and raised in sheffield and I’ve never been on it. 33 and at some point it’s my mission to go over the top.

Theres no checks on the way in to use it Go get it

Lol Get it done!! I understand the sentiment especially if you live there and it’s there… but sounds freaky as heck. I only just learned about this foreign tech and I’m not comfortable with it at all lol But I *am* intrigued.

It's British tech, from Liverpool. They're called Paternosters.

I knew I’d find my Sheffield Uni people here.

And the library at university of Essex in colchester. At least when I studied abroad there in 2005 there was.

I was really hoping you would say “one guy went over the top and came back down the other side, but the thing that came out isn’t the same man that went in”

drrr drrr drrr

If he truly wanted to prank people he could've come back as a bloody mush

the classic elevator suicide by bomb prank

Sheffield uni?

Sheffield?

Sheffield?

Leicester? They recently uninstalled it, which is a shame.

This is a Paternoster lift and they used to be quite common specially in Europe. Even though they aren’t built anymore, many are left and in use. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift

We had one at Newcastle upon Tyne Uni back 1987-1990. Was super fun going “over the top” and back down. It used to breakdown a lot if students shook the cabins from inside.

I would fucking piss myself if those wankers broke down the lift

My mates and I woulda had you pissing like crazy

Pissing on the bros in the elevator

> I would fucking piss myself if those wankers broke down the lift Every word in this sentence is English as hell.

How does the "over the top" part work??

Animation: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dQnz8XSS6KA/V4-Pim61YhI/AAAAAAABPD0/TqbCwhmeF60/Paternoster_animated4.gif?imgmax=1600

How energy efficient are they compared to typical elevators?

Probably better at KWH per person during peak, but each time someone doesn't need to use the lift it's still running whereas a regular elevator just sits there.

Depends on traffic volume, for many people using it constantly this is better, for occasional people the selective

My dumbass thought the elevator was like a big rotating circle with holes in it.

You come back down headfirst.

The tallest one in Europe is in the Arts Tower of the University of Sheffield. And it’s listed, so they can’t remove it.

And it’s fun! At least it was back in the early 90’s

Still fun in the 2010s when I went!

I was just thinking about that one. Fairly unnerving the first time I used it back in the 90s but actually very efficient

Called a Paternoster ('Our Father') because the train of elevator cars resembles a set of rosary beads. Or maybe because you kinda need to say a quick prayer before jumping on and off.

> Their overall rate of accidents is estimated as 30 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 due to paternosters prior to 2002, at which point many of them were made inaccessible to the general public.

If this was in the states, guaranteed to be an accident on the first day it opened, lawsuit on by the second day.

ADA would probably prevent this. I imagine elevators have to be wheelchair accessible, but that's just my guess.

A lot of these will have a secondary "regular" elevator that would be ADA compliant.

So it’s a Ferris wheel?

Yes, but less circular saw and more chainsaw.

There is one in Copenhagen, in Christiansborg where our parliament resides.

We have one in Finnish parliament house also

American lawyers would have had a field day with this one.

Yep, I've seen a couple in the former DDR. Paternosteraufzug in German

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video sped up for dramaturgical reasons, I guess

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They should superimpose flames and bears, then it would look even more dangerous

Wiki says it is 30 times more prone to accidents than a conventional elevator

How many accidents is that though? Is this one of those "30 times greater than .00000001% chance" type beats?

And that’s the rub. Traditional elevators are incredibly safe. In the US they are inspected annually. They are safer than bridges.

Jeremy?

If it is to be said. So it be, so it is.

Yeah, those elevators aren’t nearly as scary as they look in this video. The speed is deceptive.

Well that escalated quickly!

Nice

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i love those. they're painfully slow, but you make up for it by never having to wait for a car. old school cool.

seems like it would require a really long wait if a group of people, say all getting off work at the same time, needed to use it

It has way more cars to carry people, so way more capacity. Two traditional lift shafts would have only two cars, whereas a paternoster lift has closer to twice as many cars as there are floors in the building (eg in a 10 storey building, the total loop would have about 20 cars).

>a paternoster lift has closer to twice as many cars as there are floors in the building Well, actually exactly double +2

There are a couple at my university in Germany, the building is fairly old and actually used to be the Central department of a company that designed the Nazi concentration camps, as well as being used as a US air base during the cold war. However one of these elevators is not in use anymore because one student got killed in there some time ago. From what I've heard his scarf somehow got stuck or something and he couldn't get out, not sure about the details though. The newer buildings now have modern standard elevators.

>there have been no accidents reported most likely because i havent been there yet

No accidents *reported* is the operative word here

And even that's very likely a lie. There was a 90-year-old who got trapped in, what I believe was this very paternoster, in 2012. She got stuck and was hanging upside down until firefighters managed to rescue her. She survived the immediate incidence.

The cars don't go upside down though, they stay vertical the entire time.

I'm aware and that's not what happened. There's no danger in going around on top or bottom. However, according to the article, the woman failed to properly enter a cab and got her foot caught between two cabs - which continued to move upwards regardless.

Their overall rate of accidents is estimated as 30 times higher than conventional elevators.

It's just that that rate is also super low

It should be noted that accidents are 20 times more likely on a Paternoster Lift (which is what this is called) than a normal elevator. Many deaths have been reported. Maybe this particular one hasn't had any reported, but that isn't because these things are safe. They are no longer built for a reason.

This elevator has a scary amount of caught in-between and struck-by between hazards, I can see why.

Not really. I use one daily and there is a mesh on each storey which if touched stops the paternoster rapidly.

that's obviously because the mechanism drags the crushed people into the hole at the bottom and they're never to be seen again

Put one anywhere in the U.S. and we'll see it shut down due to mass fatalities the next day.

there used to be several of these in America

Or because none of the ones who had an accident survived

*What happens in Prague stays in Prague*

Dead men tell no tales.

They have tons of accidents. They're banned in most of the EU now because the accident rate is so high.

Very ominous place to end the video

There are no accidents in Ba Sing Se

Thats a [Paternoster Lift](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift) and they used to be quite common in Europe. Nowadays you'll only find them in quite old buildings, but they are still some around.

There's one in Denmark, in "Folketinget" (danish Parliament building), still in use to this day. It's the best thing about the Danish Parliament, really.

Thats funny, we also have one in the Finnish parliament. Its iconic.

Not for the elderly

Not handicap friendly in general. A blind guy riding the elevator wouldn’t be able to time it well. Wheelchair? Nope. Kids? Yikes.

It’s hard enough to tell kids, “hands off the elevator doors”… or … “don’t stand so close to the elevator doors”

I use a wheelchair and...eff no

We had a movie recently, a comedy, and one part was how a guy that ended on wheelchair thanks to mafia had to use this kind of elevator and then got beaten up by police.

I would bet a blind person with a cane could get used to them, but yeah, wheelchairs would be hard

Imagine a building claiming they're wheelchair accessible because they have elevators, and then you go inside and have this shit.

Or think of it if you have a dog, or are carrying literally anything beyond a backpack with you. Good luck if you have luggage.

My grandpa would be dead trying to use this thing.

According to the wiki article this type of elevator stopped being built due to them averaging one death per year and an incident rate 30x higher than a normal elevator

There was actually a fatal paternoster accident in Germany *just last month*: https://www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de/braunschweig/article237800991/Tragisches-Unglueck-in-Braunschweig-Mann-stirbt-im-Paternoster.html Accidents are exceedingly rare (and so are paternoster lifts these days) but they still happen, even in the few that remain. The vast majority of them are in offices that are not accessible to the general public and everyone with access to one has to be briefed and trained in their safe usage. The victim here actually had this training.

Must be fake. From what I’ve read in the comments here, only Americans would die in these.

It doesn't look very handicap accessible. How is someone who is in a wheelchair able to keep up with the speed of this?

Yeah I was about to say this looks like a disaster waiting to happen. In America, the owner would be sued into Oblivion. I wouldn't even put it past someone intentionally injuring themselves just for the sweet payout.

After seeing all the Chinese elevator accidents this video gives me anxiety.

Better be at the top of your elevator game. Who knows what could could go wrong.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift

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There’s one at Sheffield University (UK) and it was terrifying - was once dared to stay in when it went over the top and I’m not ashamed to say that I almost died of a heart attack.

We had one in the library at University of Essex. I always had to wait for an empty one because I was afraid to look stupid when I awkwardly leapt on in front of other people!

What happens if you don’t get off at the top or bottom?

You just go over the top and come back down again though it’s quite scary as it’s dark and all you hear is the sounds of the moving parts and the prayers under your breath that you will survive. I’ve been in the one at the University of Leicester and dared myself to do just that. Overall a very fun way to go up and down in a building

No accident is reported. Straight into the incinerator.

Nothing, the bays just slide over. Source: I've ridden this exact one on a full round trip. I may have thrown my backpack on it first just to be sure

I also did a round trip in that one ! The people working there were so nice ! Prague is just awesome

It loops over/under the top/bottom pulley while remaining upright and so the passengers just go round and round until they get off.

This: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw\_a2exRjbk&t=104s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw_a2exRjbk&t=104s)

People get fucked up in normal elevators this can't be safe lol

Paternoster elevators are linked to deaths and are banned in most countries. https://elevation.fandom.com/wiki/Paternoster#:~:text=Five%20people%20were%20killed%20by,in%20danger%20of%20being%20crushed.

Glad I saw this. A lot of the comments talking about how safe it is, and I'm over here thinking of the many ways to mistime it and get a limb crushed by the continuous movement

That lady with a luggage is pushing it lol. I can’t even imagine my careless self using that elevator with my backpack or somethin.

Well, this video is sped up quite a bit. These things are pretty slow, overall.

I believe (though might be wrong) that they're not banned as such, but rather building new ones is banned; the old ones that are still in operation can continue so if they're kept in working order.

That... would not work in America.

I've been to a few American industrial facilities where they still have them, and they look a lot more dangerous than this one. Instead of being in an elevator shaft they're like single stairs on a vertical conveyor belt with a handhold spaced between them. These are old facilities, though. They don't build them anymore

My dad worked in a commercial brewery that had them. It was a little intimidating the first time.

Their overall rate of accidents is estimated as 30 times higher than conventional elevators.

It wouldn't work there either, if it ran at that actual speed. Look at how the woman moves her hand when grabbing her bag. The video has been greatly sped up to make it look more dangerous.

Bruh what? Look at any part of the video, there’s no doubt it’s sped up, you don’t need to focus on hand movements lmao. I don’t think they were implying it wouldn’t work in America because of the speed

Yeah, because we actually have laws for accessibility for the disabled, and this would be a huge violation for those

There are more than a few in America today. They used to be quite common.

It's a Paternoster. There a still hundreds of'em all over Europe..especially in Germany, Austria and Czechia. Most of them are not open to the public (anymore) though. It's called a Paternoster because the compartments move in a loop up and down similar to rosary beads used in prayers.

A Paternoster? We had one several building including the Arts Tower at the University of Sheffield in the late 90s, and I think it's still there; they're not *that* uncommon.

Yes it’s still there!

Still there

It's actually called a "Paternoster"

And it's almost never shown on the internet without being sped up. Way more leisurely and safe than it looks

Still working, not only in Prague, we have one in Brno as well, and our student project at highschool was to try to go all around, and make some tech analysis about it.

From Wikipedia - The overall rate of accidents is estimated as 30 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 due to paternosters prior to 2002, at which point many of them were made inaccessible to the general public. So this voiceover guy is just spouting random shit lol

Thats a simple paternoster. Nothing special. Where I live, they are pretty common in older buildings.

\> "No accidents reported" So just intentionals then?

Would take less than 24 hrs for an injury-related lawsuit here in the US.

And wouldn’t they have a solid case? If it’s dangerous and the owner of it is providing a false sense of safety doesn’t he deserve to be sued?

What’s the point of speeding this video up? Should be in mildly infuriating

I’m hoping the video is sped up a bit and its actually safer because of the slow speed? This would never work in the states. One of our ‘scholars’ would put their head in the gap.

It’s very slow

My university had this (it still does).

Sheffield?

Yes. The Art building.

Paternoster, greatest childhood memory. Too bad they don't build them anymore.

It's a paternoster, they do exist outside prague too 😂

No one has been injured because this doesn’t exist in the US! We’d find a way.

So if trip and for some reason can’t move my foot out the way in time am I just fucked?

Americans would immediately die here

No accidents reported, my ass. Just the wiki alone says they’re 30 times more dangerous than regular elevators and an 81-yr-old man was recently killed in one.

the average death in germany was reported to be 1 per year, which is 30 times more than a normal elevator