Page 94 - Demo

92WHILE FEED MILLS AND GRAIN ELEVATORS have elevators for lifting grain, they may also have another type of elevator for lifting people. To distinguish this type of elevator from the one for lifting grain, it%u2019s referred to as a man lift. Tall ladders, or stairs, are often available to get to the tops of these structures, but a man lift makes getting there much easier. As a rule, a man lift is designed to accommodate a single person, and they tend to be manually operated. In other words, you lift yourself up. A man lift is actually a very ingenious device, with a heavy counterweight to balance the weight of the passenger (and the weight of the lift). The man lift itself hangs from a cable that runs over a large pulley at the top of the facility. The other end of the cable is attached to the counterweight, which weighs as much as an %u201caverage%u201d man. In addition, there is a stationary rope that runs through the man lift, which is attached to both the ceiling and floor of the building. To operate a man lift, you step onto its small platform (below) and close the cage door. Then you grab hold of the stationary rope and release the brake. If you weigh more than the counterweight, you gently pull down on the stationary rope, hand-over-hand, and lift yourself up. It doesn%u2019t take much effort because the counterweight does most of the work. As you move up, the counterweight moves down, and you will pass it at the halfway point. When you reach the top, you apply the brake and step out. To go back down, because you weigh more than the counterweight, you simply let the rope pass through your grip, hand-over-hand, and glide down until you reach the bottom. If you weigh less than the counterweight, you glide up, then gently pull yourself down. Because man lifts are for human use, they have, in recent decades, come under the regulation of government agencies, and must be inspected and approved annually, in the same way as conventional passenger elevators.The image on the facing page shows the view looking up through the center of an old elevator. The man lift traveled up the right-hand side.Man lift