Toshiba installs World's fastest Elevator
We’re not quite sure where to file this one – it’s not every day we write a story about a lift. But this is no ordinary lift, it’s been elevated to new heights by becoming the world’s fastest elevator in the world’s tallest building. Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp. (TELC) (not our favourite lift company, Schindler’s Lifts, unfortunately) has just stuck the lift in Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan. It runs at what sounds to us like terrifying speeds of up 1,010 metres per minute – or 60.6km an hour (although we’re not sure if that’s going up or freefalling back down again…).
The lift comes with a number of exciting features (for a lift), including the world’s first pressure control system that prevents ear popping by adjusting the atomospheric pressure. It does this using the interestly-monikered "suction and discharge blowers".
There’s also an active control system that stops the lift from wobbling about by moving the counter mass in the opposite direction and a streamlined car design that reduces the whistling noises the high speeds create.
Guinness has just officially certified it as the fastest, while the Taipei 101 building has beaten the previous record holder, the 452m Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a height of 508 metres. The grand opening is on 31st December 2004. The first people to get in that lift for a ride will certainly be earning our respect.
