Re: elevator I say it's plausible
Tangent: I've always wondered why cable-type elevators (as opposed to hydraulic or geared or whatever other mechanisms might be used in practice) even have emergency breaks.
It seems like it'd be easy to construct a car that's sufficiently unbalanced that regardless of the contents, it would still wedge itself in the shaft if there's no tension on the cable. Presto: cable failure, car just stops where it is, or at worst drops only a fraction of its own length.
For extra safety, run a toothed post the length of the shaft, to catch a bottom edge of the car if it's not held plumb by the tensioned cable.
Brakes just seem like the harder, more complicated way to solve the problem, when simple geometry can do the job. Presumably I'm missing something.
Any elevator experts around?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
