should lifts/elavators be fitted with port holes?

Astitchintime

You would only be able to attract someone’s attention if the lift got stuck at a floor - otherwise all you would see would be the life shaft! A more agreeable option might be a display screen featuring a calming landscape or similar which might help allay panic in anyone stuck in the lift.
A healthier alternative would be to use the stairs.

Not if your feet have been amputated.

Allira

Ps I never knew it was called a paternoster, thanks Trisha99

Is that because people recited the Lord's Prayer as they leapt in?

Apparently it’s because the chain resembles rosary beads. I prefer your explanation Allira !

Can't think of anything worse. I close my eyes in lifts.

Take the stairs!!! In later years I have developed claustrophobia and I cannot go use tiny lifts. Bigger ones I have to psyche myself up for. I know if it got stuck I would be a gibberish wreck. I think it’s that which scares me the most. A small window wouldn’t help. I have been in lifts outside the building with glass on 3 sides - doesn’t help if you are scared of heights!

Lifts that stop between floors are usually capable of being manually wound down to the next floor from the motor room. I recall being given instruction on how to do it.

Just reading this makes me feel claustrophobic! I always use the stairs

A port hole wouldn't help

All lifts have escape hatches of some kind. Usually in the roof. At least I always assume so, to get people out if the lift is stuck between floors and cannot be moved safely.

Would that be a opening porthole?

I cannot see what difference it would make.

Allira

We had one at college where you leapt in as it went up or down slowly. There was no door on the front 😯

It's called a Paternoster- a continuously circulating lift - a friend of mine was at Leicester University in the early 1980s, they have/had one there. I went to visit her one weekend and had great fun jumping in and out.

Wonder if it's still there ?
Health & Safety would probably have a field day

Taichinan

I can think of nothing worse infoman. We were stuck in a cable car once over Singapore harbour on our way out to Santosa Island. It was during an electrical storm and power was cut to the cable cars as a safety measure. We could see out - and down!! I don't think I have ever been so frightened. So a porthole in a lift wouldn't make an awful lot of difference to the fear and feeling of isolation. At least in the lift you could hear people shouting that help was coming.

Wonderful view though 😀

Ps I never knew it was called a paternoster, thanks Trisha99

Is that because people recited the Lord's Prayer as they leapt in?

Trisha99

Allira

We had one at college where you leapt in as it went up or down slowly. There was no door on the front 😯

Think that sort of lift is called a paternoster. There was one just inside the staff entrance at the Pantheon M&S ( the branch near Oxford Circus).
I used to hate having to go there for training and would always use the stairs rather than jump on and off that lift.

I don't think I worried about it at the time, being young, but wouldn't want to go in one now.

I can think of nothing worse infoman. We were stuck in a cable car once over Singapore harbour on our way out to Santosa Island. It was during an electrical storm and power was cut to the cable cars as a safety measure. We could see out - and down!! I don't think I have ever been so frightened. So a porthole in a lift wouldn't make an awful lot of difference to the fear and feeling of isolation. At least in the lift you could hear people shouting that help was coming.

Allira

We had one at college where you leapt in as it went up or down slowly. There was no door on the front 😯

Think that sort of lift is called a paternoster. There was one just inside the staff entrance at the Pantheon M&S ( the branch near Oxford Circus).
I used to hate having to go there for training and would always use the stairs rather than jump on and off that lift.

I’m not at all fond of lifts and much prefer to use the stairs.

It must be ghastly for people who live in high rise flats where, for those on the upper floors, the lift is essential.

There’s a very funny Specsavers ad where a delivery man struggles up many flights with a heavy parcel only to learn he’s in the wrong tower block!

infoman

Had the misfortune of getting stuck in a lift with eight other persons,
I was not particularly worried but some of the occupants had a very concerned look on their faces,
I presume they could suffer from Claustrophobia.
What did not help is that there no port hole so you could see out and attract some ones attention,
the emergency button was pressed but it was not very pleasant experience, that you hear but not see any one with shouts of "help is on its way"

I got stuck in a lift when I was heavily pregnant. The person who looked most stressed was the police sergeant standing next to me. When we were eventually freed he said he was dreading delivering the baby.

As everybody has said, between floors, all you would see is the brick walls of the lift shaft - hardly reassuring!
No, you’ll have to think of a better one. Maybe having Spoons on speed dial?

You would only be able to attract someone’s attention if the lift got stuck at a floor - otherwise all you would see would be the life shaft! A more agreeable option might be a display screen featuring a calming landscape or similar which might help allay panic in anyone stuck in the lift.
A healthier alternative would be to use the stairs.

I would not want to see bricks either.

We had one at college where you leapt in as it went up or down slowly. There was no door on the front 😯

No, I'd rather not see out, especially if it started moving downwards ...

I'm sure some port holes would put everyone's mind at rest if the lift got stuck..... Not!!

This is hilarious - what if you’re stuck between floors?

How long were you stuck there? I would have been much worse if I was alone- at least you had company and people to chat to.

It is a common study in drama school- to improvise being stuck in a lift with other people and working out a script!