. Bulletin. Science. Figure 31.—The French Ghard pumps that suppHed the Otis and Roux systems. (From La Nature, Oct. 5, i88g, vol. 17, p. 292.) The direct plunger elevator was the only type in which European practice was in advance of American practice at this time. Not until the beginning of the 20th century, when hydraulic systems were forced into competition with electrical systems, was the direct plunger elevator improved in America to the extent of being practically capable of high rises and speeds. Another reason for its early disfavor in the United States was the necessity for drilling
. Bulletin. Science. Figure 31.—The French Ghard pumps that suppHed the Otis and Roux systems. (From La Nature, Oct. 5, i88g, vol. 17, p. 292.) The direct plunger elevator was the only type in which European practice was in advance of American practice at this time. Not until the beginning of the 20th century, when hydraulic systems were forced into competition with electrical systems, was the direct plunger elevator improved in America to the extent of being practically capable of high rises and speeds. Another reason for its early disfavor in the United States was the necessity for drilling an expen- sive plunger well equal in length to the ; As mentioned, the most serious problem confronting Edoux was the extremely high rise of 525 feet. The Trocadero elevator, then the highest plunger machine in the world, traveled only aljout 230 feet. A second- ly Improved oil-well drilling techniques were influential in the intense but short burst of popularity enjoyed by direct plunger systems in the United States between 1899 and 1910. In New York, many such systems of 200-foot rise, and one of 380 feet, were installed. ary difficulty was the esthetic undesirability of per- mitting a plunger cylinder to project downward a distance equal to such a rise, which would have carried it directly into the center of the open area be- neath the first platform (fig. 6). Both problems were met by an ingenious modification of the basic system. The run was divided into two equal sections, each of 262 feet, and two cars were used. One operated from the bottom of the run at the second platform level to an intermediate platform half-way up, while the other operated from this point to the observation platform near the top of the Tower. The two sections were of course parallel, but offset. A central guide, on the Tower's center-line, running the entire 525 feet served both cars, with shorter guides on either side—one for the upper and one for the lower run. Thus, each car travel
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