Hitachi designs superfast lift

According to the Nikkei Business Daily, the lift will carry five tons of stuff including people and uses a 300 kilowatt motor to drive it.

Oddly, the five tons equate to 80 people "using Japanese standards" and 66 people "using Chinese standards".

The newspaper does not give an idea of how many Western European or North American people it can carry.

Not many people know this, but in a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, skyscrapers only became really feasible after the lift was invented.

No one knows why the Brits call elevators lifts, seeing as they were invented in America. Perhaps just to give the impression that Britain and the USA are two countries divided by a common language. µ

See Also
The INQUIRER guide to English English
The INQUIRER Guide series

L'INQ
Nikkei.net
Otis opened elevator factory September 20, 1853