Ever since their invention in the 1800s, elevators (or “lifts” in the UK) have been central to transportation inside a building, and they can be essential when a building, like a skyscraper, is so tall that taking the stairs to the 40th or 50th floor is wildly impractical. For most of human history, buildings have been short enough so that elevators were never even needed, but in the 1800s, skyscrapers emerged as a new construction method that could use metal beams to make buildings much taller than ever before, while traditional wooden or brick buildings rarely exceeded four or five…