We always tend to gauge modernity via our ability to go from point A to point B on a horizontal plain in record time. We were considered to have propelled into a new era when the steam and combustion engines came to fore. With nuclear energy we took another giant step for mankind. Speed was of essence.
We forget that our vertical mobility is also a sign of modernity or at least left an impact with it.
Before elevators were invented, buildings were not tall. Elevators helped us to develop 'vertically'. Anyway, what is modernity without skyscrapers?
With increased concentration of people in a small square metre, the concept of familiarity and need to acknowledge each other slowly dwindled. Slowly, people began not acknowledging each other and started the business of MYOB. People may be literally dead in the pigeon hole before his neighbour realises that he actually had he had an neighbour from the stench emanated from the decaying corpse!
The early elevators were slow and were big rooms for passengers to rest and have a drink, manned by elevator boys. He manned his own space.
Placement of social class also turned with the advent of electric elevators. Initially, the poor classes and mistresses were placed in the higher floors. It was a time when a bourgeoisie ascends to the higher floor for his private business, it was assumed that he had a mistress placed in the higher or was having an illicit union with a mistress from the working class! The higher floors also placed ladies of ill-repute.
When vertical achievability became easy with modern electrical generators and hydraulics, slowly the penthouses and the affluent found their way up. Naturally property prices soared as you when further up the ground, away from the filth of the city, so to say.
Elevators also help to investigate the peculiar behaviours of people, also a confessional space when it goes into trouble (e.g. like trapped in a lift). It is also a fertile ground for studies in psychology. When a person enters an empty lift, he would invariably stand near the controls. The next person who enters would place himself diagonally opposite to the first. The next two would take either corners and the next one in the centre. Almost like clockwork, all of them would look up in unison waiting for the ascent into space. There is a kind of suspicion amongst all these people even though they may be on top of each other, location wise, each day, every day would go without giving a care to the person who stays, live or work in the same building. That, in essence, is the dynamics of modern living. Each man is a man for himself..
We forget that our vertical mobility is also a sign of modernity or at least left an impact with it.Before elevators were invented, buildings were not tall. Elevators helped us to develop 'vertically'. Anyway, what is modernity without skyscrapers?
With increased concentration of people in a small square metre, the concept of familiarity and need to acknowledge each other slowly dwindled. Slowly, people began not acknowledging each other and started the business of MYOB. People may be literally dead in the pigeon hole before his neighbour realises that he actually had he had an neighbour from the stench emanated from the decaying corpse!
The early elevators were slow and were big rooms for passengers to rest and have a drink, manned by elevator boys. He manned his own space.
Placement of social class also turned with the advent of electric elevators. Initially, the poor classes and mistresses were placed in the higher floors. It was a time when a bourgeoisie ascends to the higher floor for his private business, it was assumed that he had a mistress placed in the higher or was having an illicit union with a mistress from the working class! The higher floors also placed ladies of ill-repute.
When vertical achievability became easy with modern electrical generators and hydraulics, slowly the penthouses and the affluent found their way up. Naturally property prices soared as you when further up the ground, away from the filth of the city, so to say.
Elevators also help to investigate the peculiar behaviours of people, also a confessional space when it goes into trouble (e.g. like trapped in a lift). It is also a fertile ground for studies in psychology. When a person enters an empty lift, he would invariably stand near the controls. The next person who enters would place himself diagonally opposite to the first. The next two would take either corners and the next one in the centre. Almost like clockwork, all of them would look up in unison waiting for the ascent into space. There is a kind of suspicion amongst all these people even though they may be on top of each other, location wise, each day, every day would go without giving a care to the person who stays, live or work in the same building. That, in essence, is the dynamics of modern living. Each man is a man for himself..
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