Fred A. Annett’s Electric Elevators (1927): Part 1

A critical turning point in American VT technical literature

In September 1927, the Journal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers published a brief review of a recently published book on electric elevators:

“This is a welcome addition to the scanty literature on modern elevators. It is descriptive rather than theoretical, and while all types of electric elevators are included, the emphasis is placed upon the latest designs. The book will be useful to those who select and operate elevators.”[1]

The subject of the review was Electric Elevators: Their Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance, by Fred A. Annett, which had been published by McGraw-Hill in July 1927.[2] This book, the first by an American author on this important topic, marked a critical turning point in American vertical-transportation (VT) technical literature.

The recognition of the importance of Annett’s book was reflected in the numerous reviews that appeared in engineering and architectural journals. One of the first reviews appeared in the August 13, 1927, issue of Electrical World:

“The author has succeeded admirably in his presentation of the problems arising in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of elevators and their motors and controls. The book is intended to be useful to architects, engineers, students and building superintendents. The types of elevator designs, which include the automatic-leveling or automatic-landing types of machines, with variable-voltage control systems, have received particularly skillful treatment. The sections relating to direct current and alternating current drives should assist greatly in producing a greater understanding of the relative advantages of the two classes of motor applications. Operating and maintenance men will find the chapters devoted to the location of faults in mechanical equipment and in direct and alternating current motors and controls to be of special value. Mr. Annett has produced a highly usable book, one authoritatively stating present knowledge of this phase of modern transportation.”[3]

The emphasis on the book’s usability was echoed by the review published in Power, which also appeared in August:

“Electric freight and passenger elevators have come to be one of our important transportation systems. In large cities, as many passengers are carried on vertical systems of transportation as there are handled by street railway traction systems. Most of the other transportation systems have an extensive literature, but the electric elevator has not been so favored, very little having been published in book form on this subject. This new book, coming at a time when elevators have been passing through an active period of development, treats various types of modern electric elevators … The treatment of the different subjects has been from the point of view of the practical elevator man, and the equipment dealt with covers a wide range of subjects. For those who are associated with elevator problems, the book should find a wide field of usefulness and help fill a long-felt need for such a work.”[4]

Several intriguing omissions from this particular review included the fact that Annett was an assistant editor at Power (a position he had held since 1916), that McGraw-Hill also published Power and that the book’s contents were primarily composed of material that had previously appeared in the magazine.

The review in the Engineering News-Record highlighted the book’s value to engineers, particularly those who might have made a wrong assumption based on the book’s title:

“Few classes of equipment are as essential to modern buildings as are elevators. Consequently, although civil engineers interested in the design, construction or maintenance of large buildings may assume at first glance that a book entitled Electric Elevators has little of interest to them, yet they will find upon inspection that this one contains much of real value. Engineers who design or build will be able to learn much from it of the characteristics of various types of elevators and control systems and also as to power requirements. But it is chiefly engineers responsible for the maintenance of elevators that will find the book of value. Not only is considerable space devoted to methods for detecting faults in motors and mechanical equipment and to instructions as to lubrication, but there is also much on the subject of the construction and care of cables and on methods for replacing worn out cables.”[5]

Other reviews also highlighted the book’s clarity of content and utility. It was described as: “a sound, practical discussion of the design, construction, operation and maintenance of electric elevators of all types,” as “the first adequate book on electric elevators that we have seen,” and as “a highly technical, authoritative work.”[6]

Annett’s book was also reviewed by two British technical journals. A review published in Electricity echoed comments found in American publications:

“This is the most comprehensive text-book on electric elevators … which we have yet had the pleasure of perusing, and although the work is American throughout and deals only with American practice and types, yet there is in it much which will prove of direct interest to every British engineer and manufacturer as well as to architects and building superintendents who may be associated with the planning and erection of the enormous buildings which are now springing up in various parts of the metropolis as well as in the great provincial cities. They can learn much from it because it represents up-to-date practice, and the numerous diagrams of apparatus and control equipment are certain to be studied most carefully. The fact that 10 chapters have been devoted to wiring diagrams of various types of controllers is evidence of the author’s desire to cover the ground most thoroughly, and we can certainly recommend the book to the readers for whom it has been prepared. From it they are sure to gain a large amount of valuable information.”[7]

A second British review, published in The Electrician, differed from others in its critical assessment and in the fact that the identity of the reviewer is known.

The author of The Electrician review was Howard Marryat (1871-1944), co-founder of Marryat & Scott. He was a senior member of the British lift industry and was likely the only member of the VT industry (in America or the U.K.) to offer a public review of Annett’s book. His review opened with a more-or-less positive assessment:

“This is a comprehensive review of American practice in elevator design up to date, and necessarily comprises a good deal of material and argument supplied by manufacturers. One would have wished for more comparative criticism, but this is no doubt too much to expect in a work of this description.”[8]

This was followed by an observation of the differing VT environments found in the U.S. and the U.K.:

“A great deal of the development of lift machinery in America is applicable to buildings of the skyscraper class, and therefore only interests the English engineer who foresees drastic revision of the Building Acts.”[8]

The Building Acts restricted building heights in British cities and thus prevented the construction of tall buildings or skyscrapers that would have required high-speed traction machines.

Marryat, however, also noted that the absence of tall buildings did not mean that the U.K. lacked modern elevator technology:

“It is gratifying to note, with regard to lifts suitable for buildings of the English style, that we are in no way behind in design. In the general adoption of the traction drive for instance, we seem to have been leading for whereas we have used this method almost exclusively for twenty years or more, the author tells us ‘this type of machine is coming rapidly into use.’”[8]

While the perception that the British were “leading” in this arena was mistaken (the reasons why this misreading occurred will be addressed in part two of this article), the statement does speak to the competitive spirit that existed between the two VT industries. Another, more readily evident distinction between the two industry groups was also identified:

“In places the nomenclature is a little confusing to the English reader. Yet another term – pinch-groove – is introduced to indicate what we have finally decided to call traction drive (British Standard Glossary). After telling us that pinch-groove is equivalent to half-wrap, the author proceeds to refer to this drive as single-wrap. Semi-magnetic and full-magnetic control are other unfamiliar terms.”[8]

The difference in VT industry language was both cultural (lift versus elevator) and reflective of the need to develop a new technical vocabulary associated with the electric elevator.

The gradual emergence of this new “nomenclature” was evident in the glossary referenced by Marryat: the British Standard Glossary of Terms Used in Electrical Engineering.[9] The Glossary placed the terms associated with electric lifts in a section titled “Miscellaneous Applications,” which also included sub-sections on x-rays, electro medical terms and various electrical terms. The lift section was limited to 36 terms and defined “traction drive” as: “A method of transmitting power to the rope or ropes by means of a grooved driving sheave.”[9] Secondary associated terms included v-wheel drive, wedge drive and half-wrap drive. [9]

Marryat concluded his review by noting that:

“In dealing with controllers and wiring diagrams, the author is particularly thorough, devoting no fewer than 10 chapters in this part of the work. As the subject is dealt with from first principles onwards, the reader is enabled to understand any lift diagram, whether in the collection illustrated or not. It would have been an advantage if more information, particularly capacities, had been given with the controller illustrations. Printing, paper, binding, and the 350 illustrations and plates are excellent and the style lucid.”[8]

Thus, his conclusion paralleled his introduction in its combination of praise and gentle criticism.

Somewhat surprisingly, while most of the reviews noted Annett’s association with Power, and a few reported that some of the material had previously appeared in the magazine, none of the reviewers reported the fact that Annett’s role in its production was equally split between editor and author. In the book’s introduction, he made no secret of his reliance on industry partners, and multiple footnotes throughout the text clearly indicated the presence of work by other authors. Part two of this article will explore Annett’s diverse cadre of co-authors, and the precise connection between the material in the book and that which had appeared previously in Power.

References

[1] “Electric Elevators,” Journal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (September 1927).
[2] Annett, Fred A. Electric Elevators: Their Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance. 1st Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1927.
[3] “New Books: Electric Elevators,” Electrical World, 90: 324 (August 13, 1927).
[4] “Recent Publications,” Power (August 23, 1917).
[5] “Elevator Design and Operation,” Engineering News-Record (September 15, 1927).
[6] “New Books: Book Reviews,” Engineers and Engineering (September 1927); “New Books,” Western Society of Engineers (October 1927); and “Book Reviews,” Architecture (January 1928).
[7] “Reviews of Books, etc.,” Electricity (December 2, 1927).
[8] “Book Reviews,” The Electrician (November 18, 1927).
[9] The British Engineering Standards Association, British Standard Glossary of Terms Used in Electrical Engineering, London: Crosby Lockwood & Son (1926).