Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Bill wrote:

> When you pull on the rope from inside the car, the small counterweight 
> lifts off of the larger one, and you and the car become heavier than 
> the counterweight, so you start to move down.  When you let go of the 
> rope, you start to reverse direction.  You can probably find a way to 
> clamp the rope to the side of the car so you don't have to keep 
> pulling up on the rope. 

I don't think it will work quite as stated.  The small counterweight 
would need to be lifted to the desired location, corresponding to the 
floor you wish to travel to, and the end of the rope somehow hooked to a 
ring on the outside of the building (or inside the shaft) -- but not to 
the elevator car itself.  The "catch" is that you have to be able to 
hook and unhook it from another floor.  It wouldn't be that hard to do, 
but why bother when the variable-mass water ballast replaces the small 
counterweight so effectively.  Using a small 12V bilge pump ($20), the 
water can be very quickly and effortlessly transferred from one side to 
the other.

The requirement to have larger ballasts that smaller folks can wheel 
into the elevator is not nearly as awkward as it sounds.  If you just 
have 4, weighing 10, 20, 40, and 80 pounds, any multiple of 10 pounds up 
to 150 pounds can be obtained.  The remaining difference is made up with 
the variable-mass water ballast.

I'm tempted to build a small working model, just for the only change in 
elevation here in our house: a half-story drop from the back porch down 
to the old apple orchard.

Bill
S. Oregon coast