Our coming world

by Alfred Charles Michaud

These platforms were not attached to or supported by cables. They were not permanent inside fixtures of the shaft; many elevators could operate at the same time in one shaft, as many as there were floors. Automatically, they traveled in the shaft at a certain distance from each other so that they could not collide. When one of them reached its given floor, the whole line of elevators stopped in the shaft until this one vacated it. The shaft floor doors opened and released three rails from the floor into the shaft to support the elevator, while it released itself from the beams, gears. The elevator then rolled on its flat wheels onto the rails and then onto the floor. When the rails snapped back into position, the doors closed, and the other elevators in the shaft continued on their way to their floors.

Now the released elevator with its load propelled itself to the place of unloading. On the floor of this elevator were four movable belts. They were used for loading (pulling on) and unloading (pushing off) a full load, four units, when all four belts operated, or a half load, two units, when two belts operated; or a quarter load, one unit, when one belt operated. One unit was the equivalent of the minimum size of a load of heavy merchandise that we handle.

When this elevator reached the place of unloading, it hooked onto the permanent loading platform against the wall, eighteen inches from the floor. These permanent platforms had metal movable belts for loading and unloading and when the elevator was hooked to one of them, the belts on both moved into action. The elevator belts pushed off while the platform belts pulled on the load. These loading and unloading belts were on all the freight cars, loading platforms, and on every deck, on both sides, of our air and sea freight ships.

The same process took place when the elevators were being loaded, but in reverse; the belts on the permanent platform pushed off and belts on the elevator pulled on the load at the same time. The elevator then was on its way to the down-going elevator shaft. When it got up to the shaft, the doors automatically slid open; all the down-going elevator platforms stopped; the rails to support the elevator shot into the shaft, and the elevator propelled itself into the shaft, firmly gripping with its gear wheels into the cogs of the beams. Then the floor rails pulled back, the shaft doors closed, and all elevators in that shaft started down. The destination of these platforms varied; some of them unloaded onto freight ships, some onto long distance railroad cars, and some, propelled at great speed, acted as railway cars on the rails of the city and suburban freight subways, and often went long distances to their final destinations.

All these operations were done efficiently and by remote control, by a person sitting at a switch desk, thousands of miles away.

After his long description of how the elevators worked, Mr. Amony led us to their main waiting room on the ground floor in the middle court, which, he explained, had an open roof during the summer season and was protected by skylights during the winters. We sat down and an attendant quickly served us refreshments. This room was nearly filled with people waiting to meet their friends. As we ate, Mr. Amony gave us more information.

"This building is a sample of the hundred stores that run in a row on our southern water front from east to west for twenty-five miles. These two buildings, with fifty stories each, have fifty separate office suites on each floor, totaling two thousand five hundred suites per building. In this building, fifty store buildings from here west, are operated and controlled; in our sister building the fifty buildings from here east are operated."

Leading us to the escalator, he said, "Let us go up and see one of the offices in action." In the office we visited, there was a personnel of five; a chief and four assistants. They had complete operating charge of an entire storage floor in a store building. Each one of them was responsible for one-quarter space of it. They not only were supposed to be experts in the special merchandise handled on that floor, but they also had to do the ordering from the production point and the inspecting of materials. They had to keep a full supply of stock at all times.

Seated at their desks with an assortment of business machines, including a television set, they could clearly see the floor under their control. From their seats, they operated heavily loaded elevator platforms to the appointed portions of their floor. Loading and unloading, taking up and storing, and taking out units of merchandise to near or distant destinations were done by them.

One operation attracted my particular attention. A large freight ship was being unloaded under a store building. I could very clearly see it on the television. The ship had just anchored directly beneath the elevator shafts, following the orders of the clerk by whom we were standing. A removable metal frame was being put together by the ship's crew to fit into the up-going shaft, through the hatch, and right down to the bottom of the hold.