There can be little doubt that the French elevators placed in the east and west piers to carry visitors to the first stage of the Tower had the important secondary function of saving face. That an engineer of Eiffel’s mechanical perception would have permitted their use, unless compelled to do so by the Exposition Commission, is unthinkable. Whatever the attitudes of the commissioners may have been, it must be said—recalling the Backmann system—that they did not fear innovation. The machinery installed by the firm of Roux, Combaluzier and Lepape was novel in every respect, but it was a product of misguided ingenuity and set no precedent. The system, never duplicated, was conceived, born, lived a brief and not overly creditable life, and died, entirely within the Tower.
Basis of the French system was an endless chain of short, rigid, articulated links ([fig. 35]), to one point of which the car was attached. As the chain moved, the car was raised or lowered. Recalling the European distrust of suspended elevators, it is interesting to note that the car was pushed up by the links below, not drawn by those above, thus the active links were in compression. To prevent buckling of the column, the chain was enclosed in a conduit ([fig. 36]). Excessive friction was prevented by a pair of small rollers at each of the knuckle joints between the links. The system was, in fact, a duplicate one, with a chain on either side of the car. At the bottom of the run the chains passed around huge sprocket wheels, 12.80 feet in diameter, with pockets on their peripheries to engage the joints. Smaller wheels at the top guided the chains.
If by some motive force the wheel ([fig. 33]) were turned counterclockwise, the lower half of the chain would be driven upward, carrying the car with it. Slots on the inside faces of the lower guide trunks permitted passage of the connection between the car and chain. Lead weights on certain links of the chains’ upper or return sections counterbalanced most of the car’s dead weight.
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Figure 28.—Plan and section of the Otis system’s movable pulley assembly, or chariot. Piston rods are at left.
(Adapted from The Engineer (London), July 19, 1889, vol. 68, p. 58.)