Ingenieur Vol 71 ingenieur July 2017 | Page 46

INGENIEUR

ESCALATOR – GRACIOUS VERTICAL TRANSPORTER

By Ir . Lum YL , Vice President , Persatuan Pengurusan Kompleks Malaysia

FEATURE

“ An escalator can never break down : it can only become stairs . You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign , just Escalator Temporarily Stairs . Sorry for the convenience .” - Mitch Hedberg

The escalator is one of the most amazing pieces of engineering design in the history of science , it is able to move thousands in an hour from floor to floor without having the passengers ’ walking experience impaired . This is totally unlike riding lifts , where passengers ’ experience in a shopping mall is drastically affected by getting into a “ cage ” and being “ released ” from it after having arrived at their destination floor . It may or may not be realised by many , the existence of escalators in shopping malls is more than just science , it

44 VOL 71 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2017 is an art , and it has its own philosophy .

YOU SEE WHERE YOU ARE GOING

The journey of one entering a “ lift ” is a quantum leap of faith , which most of us have taken for granted . We have been taught to believe that once we enter a lift and press the button , we are “ assured ” that the intelligence system hidden somewhere in the building will definitely deliver us to our floor . Without a doubt , we expect that once the lift doors open , we are assured that we will be walking on the landing instead of being in the middle of the ocean . We have faith in this piece of machinery that we are stepping in and out of , because we believe there are tens of thousands or millions of hours spent by scientists and engineers behind this 150 yearold invention .

But riding an escalator is a whole new level of excitement compared with a lift in terms of its technological complexity . The escalator is less dramatic and there is nothing much horror movie directors can do about