TOWN HALL

Evening Star, Issue 23683, 17 September 1940, Page 3

TOWN HALL

LATEST TYPE OF, LIFTS COMPLETELY AUTOMATIC Tiifts. like motor cars and a hundred and ono products of to-day, are among those things which seem to be continually reaching a stage at which further improvement is unimaginable. Practically all of Dunedin will be interested in those which are to bo installed at the Town Hall, for every ratepayer will have business to do there sooner or later. And the lifts arc not the least important part of the reconstruction which is at present going on there. The work of constructing an elevator shaft has not been the easiest of tasks in a building which was not designed for this innovation, but now after three months the job is on its final stages. The chief feature of interest about the double system which is being installed lies in the, lifts themselves, which are of the latest type. Ju fact, on its completion the system will be the very latest in operation in New Zealand. Complete electro-magnetic control is the main feature. Similar lifts have been installed in North Island buildings, but none of these have all the latest improvements that have been included in this installation. All that the passenger has to do is to press a button. The lift doors then open automatically, and when the requisite floor button is pressed the doors close, the lift operates itself, and on arrival at the destination the doors roll back without further action on the part of the passenger. Tin's magnetic control is the latest improvement in lift machinery and it is a British proprietarycontrolled device. The installation is being curried out by the Kx press Company I,td., a wholly British organisation.

Behind tlio scones there is a mechanism which is at once intricate and to the initiated simple. Every precaution which could be anticipated is provided for. The control room, the winding apparatus, and the actual lift itself are all provided with auxiliary devices should the ordinary running for some reason fail, so that, in the words of the technicians, the lift i.s at once as foolproof and as accident-proof as the designer can foresee. The completion of the work in this case is necessarily bound up with several other contracts incidental to the improvements which are now being carried out, and it is not possible to give an exact date when the lifts will come into operation, but it may safely be said that the corporation has made ample provision for the convenience of visitors to the City Chambers.