COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES:

Ever been in an elevator? I have. They’re nice, especially in tall buildings.

South Coast Plaza has a new elevator in Jewel Court — part of the its very impressive 40th Anniversary facelift. The ride between Level 1 and Level 2 is short, but totally stylish, just as you’d expect from South Coast Plaza.

It’s a glass and brushed-steel lift that gives you a great view of the world beneath your wings, or above them, not that you have wings, unless you’re an angel. If you are, contact me at your earliest convenience. Is a new elevator really news?

Probably not. But it did get me to thinking, which as you know doesn’t happen often. We like to think that computers changed the world, and they did. But in their time, elevators did too.

Ever seen a picture of New York or Chicago in 1880? Flat, squatty, with buildings a few stories tall. Thirty years later, it’s skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, which isn’t too far with all the skyscrapers in the way. Elevators did that.

So what? Here’s what. Being able to gather armies of workers in one place didn’t just cause buildings to get tall — it caused American productivity to explode.

Do you know who invented the elevator? Anyone? Did someone say Elisha Otis? That’s true, sort of. The elevator has been around since about 300 B.C., which wasn’t yesterday. What Otis invented was an automatic emergency brake for elevators.

With Otis’ automatic brake, no matter how high the elevator was, if the cables snapped, the car would stop within a few feet.

People liked that. Until Otis had his big idea, elevators were for freight, not people, and they had a nasty habit of coming down like a locomotive that had been pushed off the roof whenever a cable snapped.

People didn’t like that. That might explain why most people would rather eat a bug than ride an elevator in those days. Otis demonstrated his nifty safety brake at the 1854 Crystal Palace Exposition in New York.

As the crowd watched, Otis rode an open-sided elevator four stories up then yelled to his assistant to cut the hoist cable with an axe. People didn’t like that. When they stopped screaming and opened their eyes, they saw that the car had stopped just a few feet from where it started. Otis waved to the crowd. They waved back.

Elisha Otis passed away in 1861 — don’t worry, he died in his sleep — but his sons carried onward and upward. By 1873, more than 2,000 Otis elevators nationwide were run by hydraulic and counterweight systems.

The first successful electric elevator was invented in 1880 by Werner von Siemens, who was German. The Otis Elevator Company improved on Siemens’ design in 1889, with the first direct-connected geared electric elevator — a long name that means that elevators could go just as high as they wanted thank you. The era of the skyscraper had begun and it has never stopped.

The world’s tallest elevator? It’s in the world’s tallest building, which makes sense I guess — the “101 Building” in Taipei is 101 stories tall, which probably accounts for the name.

It’s also the world’s fastest elevator, taking you straight up at about 40 miles per hour, which will get your attention, fast.

The world’s coolest elevator? It’s at the “Top of the Rock,”

the GE Building in New York’s Rockefeller Center. When you step inside, it’s your basic garden-variety elevator except there’s no garden.

When you start moving, the lights dim and you look up at a see-through ceiling, with the entire shaft above you glowing with a deep blue light. Music plays, and animated graphics dance on the ceiling as you zoom up to the 70th floor observation deck in less than 60 seconds.

The most special special-purpose elevators in the world? Sabbath elevators. In areas with large numbers of Orthodox and ultra-Conservative Jews, who may not activate electrical devices during Sabbath and holidays, special elevators run continuously and stop at every floor so riders can get on and off without ever pushing a button.

The most-likely-to-make-you-hurl elevator in the world? The Bailong elevator in Zhangjiajie, China. It’s an outdoor, high-speed, 1,070-foot tall glass elevator mounted on the side of a towering cliff, which is described as “riding in thin air” by most people who ride it. Scary, but an hour later, you want to ride it again.

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about Jewel Court, Elisha Otis and elevators. They’ve have had their ups and downs but where would be without them? Still stuck in the lobby, that’s where.

Down, please. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected].