gripe

[Dennis Jones]

>
>
>Paul Mackin wrote:
>
>Question: do the Brits ever use the word 'elevator' in place of
>'lift'? Reason I ask is because on the second page of GR (in the dream)
>it says "the evacuees are taken in lots, by elevator--a moving . . . "
>					
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        No, they don't really. As far as I can make out, for the term 
'elevator' we have to thank one Elisha Graves Otis and his 'Otis Elevator 
Company'. Apparently he invented the safety brake and travelled the world 
convincing people it was safe(?) to travel in the things.* Non-passenger 
lifts had been around for yonks and were presumably called lifts on both 
sides of the pond.
        All this comes from Bill Bryson's recent "Made in America" which, as 
well as being a good laugh and a mine of such info, also goes a long way to 
exploding the widely held belief ( at least among non-Americans) that the 
yanks have been doing dastardly things to the once pure language ever since 
the founding fathers stepped onto Plymouth Rock (which apparently they never 
did). Turns out that, more often than not, English terms, pronunciation and 
spelling lived on in the New World long after dying out back home. Here we 
are again with American conservatism v Old World progressivism.    
       * Would ole Otis lie abed at night, dreaming of a time when "the City 
is grown so tall that elevators are long-haul affairs with lounges inside: 
padded seats and benches, snack bars, newsstands where you can browse 
through a whole issue of Life between stops" GR(p735 Picador Ed.)?