NON-STOP ELEVATORS
When you ride in an elevator, you need to press a button, wait for the lift to arrive and come to a stop before its doors open to let you in. But one type of elevator, known as a paternoster, is a non-stop stream of elevator cars circling a doorless shaft. This technology is older than that found in modern elevators, but because there are so few of them left, they have become a novelty. Since the 1990s, paternosters haven’t been installed for safety reasons, but those still circling have been altered to make them safer. Lasers can detect if someone hasn’t left a car before it circles over the top, or when someone is entering the elevator too late and is about to become trapped. If this happens, they come to an emergency stop. The tallest paternoster in Europe operates in the Arts Tower at the University of Sheffield.