uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE6270XL20100308
I'm sure we all wish The Great man a swift recovery.
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>> I'm sure we all wish The Great man a swift recovery.
Indeed. And if I knew of someone with the same make of lift installed, I'd be worried for them. I thought lifts had a fail-safe mechanism to prevent that sort of accident?
Last edited by: Focus on Mon 8 Mar 10 at 12:35
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So he stepped into a lift shaft on the 3rd floor, where did he fall to that he only suffered 2 broken ankles?
He was remarkably lucky, especially for an 80 year old!
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I just read this article on the BBC too. If he really fell 3 floors he has been lucky! Worrying that someone would step into a lift shaft if the lift was not there though.
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Looks like he lost his synchro in third, short downchange to first before breaking into the pit. New crutch needed so retired......
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Slight injuries.
I wonder if he was wearing his light fawn suit!
Fawn = fallin(g)
I'l get my coat.
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bet he wont do that again :-(
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Well he did say his house needs modernising:
"My house. Even if it was still a bomb site the plot alone would be worth £10m today. But the whole thing is out of date and needs modernising this year – I want a new kitchen and air conditioning in every room."
preview.tinyurl.com/ydmy6yn
Perhaps a new lift would be a good idea too.
Biggles
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>> Perhaps a new lift would be a good idea too.
That's probably the problem - he's got a modern one with dodgy software instead of a nice old fashioned mechanical one with proper fail-safes.
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>> >> Perhaps a new lift would be a good idea too.
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>> That's probably the problem - he's got a modern one with dodgy software instead of
>> a nice old fashioned mechanical one with proper fail-safes.
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"The lift, the only one of its kind in the world, is made of carbon fibre and was specially made for him by the Williams Formula One team. ...
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Frank'll fix it.
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So no safety mechanism on the doors of the lift then... his fault for the accident it seems. Oh dear.
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>>> "My house. Even if it was still a bomb site the plot alone would be worth £10m today <<<
£10m and 3 wives ... There must be something in this ere speeding after all :)
Seriously though - he's worked damn hard for it, but he did have 'A Good Start'.
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>> 0 - 60 in 3.4 seconds.
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Using v = u + ft
Where v = final speed (60 mph = 88 feet /sec), u = initial speed (= 0), f = acceleration = 32.2 feet/sec squared (i.e. falling under gravity) and t = time in seconds ...........
I calculate that t = 2.7 seconds.
0 - 60 mph in 2.7 seconds.
(Excuse my use of what are possibly now out-of-date letters in the formula.)
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Indeed we wish him well. It could happen to any of us - no need to be 80 - as it's fairly natural to walk in when a lift door opens.
We all complain about elf & safety - but at least it caused the demise of those lethal Paternoster lifts which went round in a continuous loop and you had to jump on and off. I think they were called Paternoster ('Our Father') because you prayed hard for salvation when you got on.
I was never brave or foolish enough to discover whether they turned upside down when going 'round the back' or stayed the right way up....
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>>Paternoster also known as the cyclic elevator.
They were great. There was one in one of the buildings I worked in. It really worried any visitors asked to ride it.
I wonder if Elf n Saifty has killed them off?
For those who have not had the fun of riding one ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NdutlmJYM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0qa91F7ACM
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I went to Sheffield University in the seventies and they had one that went up about twenty storeys. It took a long time to get to the top and was very noisy and rattly as it went over the top and started coming down.
Not much more difficult to start to use than the first time on an escalator.
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Continuing the slight thread drift - I shall never forget the time I had to tune a Dr's car in St. Thomas's Hospital in London, well - I think he was a Dr. he had a white coat :)
Anyway, (he had a Dolomite btw - 1.5 crap engine) ... he took me down to the underground car park in what the above have called a paternoster elevator ...
I was absolutely terrified of the damn thing = lethal blimmin things IMO.
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I'd never seen or heard of these lifts before... truly amazing they were ever allowed.
Regarding Stirling's fall we always take Rod Hull's demise as a warning to take care with heights... I understand Emu pulled through OK though.
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>> we always take Rod Hull's demise as a warning to take care
>> with heights... I understand Emu pulled through OK though.
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I wasn't at the funeral of Rod Hull but I hear the reception was good!
Think about it!!
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there was one set of paternoster lifts where we used to noisily enter at the foyer, go up three floors, get in the side going down and do handstands, causing fear and havoc in the foyer as we went back down upside down.
I remember one small lift in a backstreet rome hotel, where there was not room for me, and our cases. The case was wedged on the floor, nicolle had to balance on top, and I rushed up the stairs to help her out at our floor. We had to do that four times. Twice on arrival and twice on departure.
Serves her right for packing so much luggage - typical woman
Ah I see the trick appeared on one of the videos.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 9 Mar 10 at 11:14
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Fancy sendng an EMU up to fix an aerial.
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The thing that amazes me is that the old boy survived at all. It's almost certainly a very small lift shaft though and he may have been able to grab at nasty sharp greasy things to slow his descent. I can't imagine a nastier way of thinking your last moment had come.
Of course SM is built like a jockey or like most top racing drivers these days, and must be very fit for his age. Must be as tough as an old boot too. Chapeau! I'm glad he's survived.
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I've only been on a couple of those continuous-chain lifts. It's true they seem intimidating but they are easy to use and I imagine people get used to them very quickly. I like them for their great simplicity.
In Plymouth in the fifties, when I was about 15, I was in the Dingle's department store, then new and splendid, with my small sister aged about 4. As we approached the snazzy new aluminium up-escalator she spotted the emergency stop button - large, red and at her eye level - and pressed it hard. The escalator stopped dead and several people on it fell over.
Only our rapid, zigzag exit enabled us to escape censure or even suspicion. I have been on the run ever since.
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SWMBO saw a button like that on the bedroom wall of daughter's new house.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Too late.
Did they have the code? Did they hell.
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I was once visiting a large data centre type place of one of the banks - they actually used it to print statements etc. There was a massive red button on the wall with a do not press sign under it. It was so tempting to press the big red button.
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I did that in a major computer room. The door in and out was a security door, with a door release button to the left, just under it was the EPO.
Yup i thumped the epo by mistake. A computer room is a really noisy place. The silence after an EPO is deafening, broken only by the sound of running feet rapidly approaching....
Its a lonely place.
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Wondered why you weren't working now.......
;-)
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That was a long while ago, all those who remembered have long gone.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 9 Mar 10 at 20:21
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I remember someone once pressing the power button on a server to turn it off. But it was the wrong one. This was before power buttons were 'soft' buttons so holding it in meant it was on but not yet off. OFf as soon as he let go.
He held it until we told the help desk of the 'problem' found and we had to reboot it...
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 9 Mar 10 at 22:02
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thats when you use the old "wow its a good job we were here and found it just in time" routine.
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>> thats when you use the old "wow its a good job we were here and
>> found it just in time" routine.
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That's what we basically did. This was 1999 BTW
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>> Chapeau!
Now where have I seen that written before? Don't tell me, I'll remember eventually who you really are.
;-)
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An incredible Briton - good to see he's back on form after the 'shunt'.
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Stirling Moss falls down lift shaft. - Focusless
