It sounds like one of those 1950's psychological experiments that scientific ethics boards no longer allow: Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator in New York City's McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Just thinking about such an ordeal gives me shivers of claustrophobic anxiety. Forty-one hours! In a suspended box!
Thankfully, security cameras caught the whole thing on tape:
And then read the article, which is fascinating throughout.
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Thanks for this post! I clicked on the link and read the whole article--got sucked right in (and consequently did not get my work done) : ). I never knew elevators could be so interesting.
There is a lot of the science of human behavior involved in the design of an elevator. I think it's especially interesting that the designers take peoples' fear into account (for example, by putting in buttons that don't do anything, but make people feel less powerless). It is a little silly, but I can see why being in a buttonless elevator would be extra-frightening. And I'm not even scared of small spaces.
Having read the article first, before the Internet video sensation of the security-camera footage, I just can't bring myself, yet, to watch it. It is not a happy ending, where Mr. White is today. I worked briefly for McGraw-Hill in the 1980s, downtown, but occasionally went to the Sixth Avenue HQ. To think, it could've been me.
It'd be interesting to see if he still stuck to his normal sleeping pattern...