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Paternoster Lifts

I remember the Paternoster at Birmingham Polytechnic (later UCE) in the main Admin Block. I was quicker on my feet back in those days. My son went there a couple of years back and he informed me that the paternoster had gone ... probably health and safety
 
Welcome Ross. Thanks for the update. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the lift disappeared. Enjoy the Forum. Viv.
 
The Problem with the paternoster were many fold there was a at least one student death when their scarf got caught up in the machinery, also because each car was fixed only by two
pivots they had to be tested for fractures, device? (only way I can describe it ) was fitted to each car so that if a pivot point broke the device would detect to car going out of its normal
travel, and stop the travelator , they were good in moving large number of students, they were bad when trying to work on them, the stuff of nightmares,
 
Yes, I remember the engineers working on them quite often during my 18 months or so at Lucas Great King Street.

Maurice
 
My old friend graham used to work for the Benny lift company around the midlands as an apprentice
and served electrician as well , until they went out of business
he worked there for years until they made him redundant he spent about 12 months unemployed
he tried and tried but to no avail no electricians required was the anwser
then he final got a break from the the british rail depot at watery lane, he had comenced working for three weeks
and on this particular day he had to climb up onto the gantry where upon he knocked is shoulder with a big bang
he went home at the end of his shift he felt tired and layed down on the floor where upon he fell into a deep sleep
and died , the reason being he had disdurbed the cancer within him which he never knew he had
it was the coroner reporting that came out other wise his dear wife would not have found out
he only had one young son whom was not very old so really he never got to know is father
 
A sad story, Alan, but sometimes one unfortunate event leads to a chain of them and one of them finally gets you. Unlikely that the cancer would have been treatable anyway as it was at a late stage, so best that he had a fairly peaceful death. Such a shame for his wife and son though. Just be thankful for what we had, eh?

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice
Nice to hear and speak again with you ,hope you had a wonderful day
yes it was a very sad thing to happen to my dear friend graham since we was kids i went around to call for him as we used
To go out regular during the week then is wife openened to door as said he is alsleep on the deck
So i said leave him them i call around tomorrow and when i did i was shocked
but any way as you say maurice we all should be grateful of we have got i have been saying that for years
my friend grah , came from the cottage homes of erdington when he was a kid he was adopted by a lovely lady named
of Olive i belevied she worked there at some time in her early years of her life
In fact she eventualy adopted three other lads from there after my mate grah grew up
and she also worked at the old peoples hospital in summerfield all those years ago
but yes i have alway been thoughtful and thank god for my small mercies
and as you know there is alot of cruelity in the world with the wars and the homeless abroad
look foreward to your threads as alway best wishes Alan,, Astonian,,,,
 
Hi Alan,

Was about to hit the close button and your posting arrived, so nice to hear from you. Once I passed the age that my age passed the age at which my own father died (69), every day after that I regarded that as special, despite all the aches & pains that come with old age. To bring this back on topic, I was quite amazed at the Paternoster, having never seen one before or since. And I was a bit wary at using it the first time, but I should have should have been more excited at the Leo Computer, but it didn't seem to do much except devour punched cards by the hundreds of thousands! No one told me that was a paperless revolution! :) Goodnight Alan, sleep well.

Maurice
 
I remember the paternoster lifts at the College of Commerce Gosta Green as I was in the first intake of students into that building. The building is now the South Tower of Aston University. Never knew why they were call paternoster except the Pater Noster is Latin for Our Father as in the Lords Prayer. It was definitely desirable to pray when using them. We were told that students were not allowed to use the main lift in the building so we had to walk up to the 4th floor where the paternosters started. They also did not go to the top floor refectory. I did go over the top and under the bottom a few times. Problems were that although they were supposed to hold two people there was not enough time for two people to get off and another two to get on as it went past each floor. Also people thought that they had to press the stop button in order to get on which resulted in the whole system stopping and we could not restart it.

The last place that I saw paternosters in use was in 2003 in the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. I asked if I could ride on it just for fun but was told firmly that members of the public were not allowed to use them.
 
David,

I guess if you ran and jumped on that there was not a lot they could do except press the stop button, by which time, if you timed it right, you had disappeared from view!

Maurice
 
Apparently there are ancient paternosters still working in Copenhagen. This link
will show you a 1913 model still working
 
This type of lift seems to be a fashion at some UK universities. Aston, Leicester, Sheffield and Essex - maybe more.
One thing seems certain and that is you need to be young. alert and agile to use them safely.
 
There were also Pater Noster lifts in the Barnes Medical Library, attached to B'ham Uni. I used them several times a day when I worked as library assistant there in the 60s. Some med students were afraid to use them and would bound up the stairs 2 or 3 at a time, which I thought was far more dangerous!
 
There are Paternoster Rows in several old cities usually near an old abbey usually signifying the point at which the monks in procession would recite the Lords Prayer. Paternoster Row in London is on the north side of St Paul's Cathedral. Why there should be one in Birmingham I have no idea. From experience of riding on Paternosters, I think a quick prayer would be advisable. Pater Noster Qui es in Caelis (Our Father who is in Heaven)
 
There is also a paternoster which is a form of fishing line, with hooks and lines attached to the main line at intervals. It has a resemblance to a rosary in as much as it is a series of spaced items along a main thread.
 
GeorgieG said:
Pater noster lift

man-engine.jpg
An early Pater Noster .....???? A Man Engine in our Cornish Mines...

Georgie
Click to expand...
i thought this name had come up before
 
there is imput about these lifts on the steelhouse lane post #21

Edit. Thanks for pointing this out mw0njm, references to the lifts have now been moved to this thread.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I used the ones at Aston University regularly when I was maintaining their telephone system and I thought how much better it was than waiting for a lift, of course this was before the over the top Health and Safety where around. Eric
 
i use rigs for fishing at sea, these too are called pasternoster fingy bobs. why i dont know just use em lol
 
My first job after leaving school was ay Lucas's Great Hampton St. They had paternoster lifts there. One day my friend and I, on the way to our odffice were brave enough to stay on the lift to see what happened when it reached the top floor, we were convinced it would turn over. It didn't, however it just moved across and came down again. I'd forgotten all about that until I read this post. Ha.Ha.
 
Radiorails said:
This type of lift seems to be a fashion at some UK universities. Aston, Leicester, Sheffield and Essex - maybe more.
One thing seems certain and that is you need to be young. alert and agile to use them safely.
Click to expand...

Newcastle Uni had them too, in a relatively new tower block during the 1980’s - I don’t know if they are still in use. I was always nervous when using them, often waiting until an empty one came along. I used to hate it when trying to get off when others were trying to get on. I wonder if anyone has ever collated accident reports?
 
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