Escalator Handrail Speed
Why do the handrails on escalators move faster than the steps?
———- from Roger Pate of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Handrails and escalators are two different kinds of reptiles. The common escalator is actually a crocodile, an African form of the American alligator. After being painlessly euthenized, it’s coated with a stiffener and put to work as a people mover at an airport or as an escalator at a department store or office building. The railings are usually made from rubberized boa constrictors or, in newer installations, compressed nightcrawlers. As Shuggy Otis, inventor of both the elevator and escalator used to say, nothing moves dead quite so well as something that slithered when alive.
Handrails and escalators are two different kinds of reptiles. The common escalator is actually a crocodile, an African form of the American alligator. After being painlessly euthenized, it’s coated with a stiffener and put to work as a people mover at an airport or as an escalator at a department store or office building. The railings are usually made from rubberized boa constrictors or, in newer installations, compressed nightcrawlers. As Shuggy Otis, inventor of both the elevator and escalator used to say, nothing moves dead quite so well as something that slithered when alive. 