ROBOT LIFTS

Evening Star, Issue 22032, 18 May 1935, Page 20

ROBOT LIFTS

LONDON INNOVATION Three mechanical, lifts, with robot voices, warning passengers, to “ Stand clear of the gates, please,” were recently put into operation at the Strand Underground Station. They make the trip up and down in 110 seconds, divided as follows: —Pause at top, 30aec; descent in 26sec; pause at bottom, 30sec; return in 25see. Much time is saved by this mechanisation, states too ‘Daily Telegraph.’ Only three, instead of the previous four, lifts are needed in rush hours, and two at quiet periods. One is always at each landing, while the third is travelling between.- There is no waiting and no delay. The service is claimed to he “ absolutely regular,” the inevitable minor vagaries of the human element having been eliminated.

A voice repeats two or three times, “Stand clear of the gates, please,” in clear carrying tones. The “ speaker ” was selected after various tests in the London Passenger Transport Board engineering department. The “ talkie ” apparatus, the same as in a cinema, is synchronised with the lift gates and with the illuminated sign, which flashes “Stop!” (in red letters), “ Gates closing!” (in white). It cost £3,500 to install. Passengers looked .bewildered, but gratified, at the innovation, and obeyed the robot voice without pause. ' There was a moment of comedy when an official at the bottom of the lift became involved in an argument over excess fare. He was caught by the minatory voice. Jumped through the closing gates, and was carried upwards with the jsasserigers. This rapid progress of mechanisation gives rise to the question: When will human engine-drivers disappear like human liftmen, and all the tGains run automatically? Much of the. driving on the underground is already automatically controlled. The 6.P.0. has for some time had a complete underground railway for mail and parcels, in which no human driver is used. Commenting on the possibilities an official of the L.P.T.B. said:—' “ Driverless engines will undoubtedly come. But it will probably be some time before we have it. Theoretically it is quite possible now, but as a practical proposition there are difficulties. “ One of these would be the timidity of passengers at the thought of driver-

less trains. It will probably mean a long psychology campaign of reassurance. “ Passengers have shown confidence in robot lifts. So why not) eventually, robot trains.”-