I have been hearing some dreadful stories about people marooned in lifts.
In movies, such unfortunates always find a trapdoor to allow them to climb up or down the liftshaft. This would be highly dangerous and today’s invention offers an alternative.
A lift is shown stuck between floors 3 and 4. Conventional lift doors would be impossible to open.
Instead, why not have doors which are made in horizontal strips?
These would normally be locked together but when the lift emergency button was pressed, the strips (yellow in cross-section) would be individually rendered free to swing outwards (blue). This would limit any sudden vertical movements of the lift whilst occupants exited to either floor n or n+1.
The potential mind-numbing effects of a long weekend in limbo would thus be avoided.