From the course: Universal Principles of Design

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,500 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Factors of safety

Factors of safety

From the course: Universal Principles of Design

Start my 1-month free trial

Factors of safety

“

- [Voiceover] Hi, I'm William Lidwell, and this is the Universal Principles of Design. In this movie, factors of safety. Or how to design for unknown unknowns. On the night of May 22, 1903 students and staff of the Pennsylvania electro-mechanical institute in Pittsburgh, prepared the Donnelly building for thefir annual banquet and ball. Festivities are to be held on the fifth and sixth floors, dancing on five, and dining on six. More than 700 people will attend. The building elevator is expected to get a workout. So, two days prior the elevator engineer performs maintenance to make sure it's up for the event. He tightens a few bolts and fixes up the brakes. Everything appears to be in working order. Elevators in those days, worked pretty much like they do today. You have cable pulley system. With a passenger car on one side, and counterweights on the other. The counterweights keep the loads in near equilibrium, minimizing the work the motors need to do to move a car up and down…

Contents