A dumbwaiter is a small

freight elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaurants, schools, hospitals, retirement homes or in private homes, the lifts generally terminate in a kitchen. Limited Preview, ''

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'', accessed August 26, 2008. The term seems to have been popularized in the United States in the 1840s, after the model of earlier "dumbwaiters" now known as

serving tray A tray is a shallow platform designed for the carrying of items. It can be fashioned from numerous materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, paperboard, wood, melamine, and molded pulp. Trays range in cost from inexpensive molded pulp tra ...

s and

lazy Susan A Lazy Susan is a turntable (rotating tray) placed on a table or countertop to aid in distributing food. Lazy Susans may be made from a variety of materials but are usually glass, wood, or plastic. They are circular and placed in the centre o ...

s. Quinion, Michael. ''World Wide Words'':
Lazy Susan
. 24 Apr 2010. Accessed 11 Aug 2013. The mechanical dumbwaiter was invented by George W. Cannon, a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

inventor. He first filed for the patent of a brake system (US Patent no. 260776) that could be used for a dumbwaiter on January 6, 1883. Limited Preview, ''

', accessed October 30, 2012. He later filed for the patent on the mechanical dumbwaiter (US Patent No. 361268) on February 17, 1887. Limited Preview, ''

'', accessed October 30, 2012. He reportedly generated vast royalties from the patents until his death in 1897., retrieved October 30, 2012.

Description

A simple dumbwaiter is a movable frame in a shaft, dropped by a rope on a pulley, guided by rails; most dumbwaiters have a shaft, cart, and capacity smaller than those of passenger elevators, usually 45 to 450 kg (100 to 992 lbs.) Before electric motors were added in the 1920s, dumbwaiters were controlled manually by ropes on pulleys. Early 20th-century building codes sometimes required fireproof dumbwaiter walls and self-closing fireproof doors and mention features such as buttons to control movement between floors and locks on doors preventing them from opening unless the cart is stopped at that floor. Dumbwaiter lifts in London were extremely popular in the houses of the rich and privileged. Maids would use them to deliver laundry to the laundry room from different rooms in the house. This obviated carrying dirty washing through the house, saving time and preventing injury. A legal complaint about a Manhattan restaurant's dumbwaiter in 1915, which also mentions that food orders are shouted up and down the shaft, describes its operation and limitations as follows:

here is Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...
... great play between the cart of the dumb-waiter and the guides on which it runs, with the result that the running of the cart is accompanied by a loud noise. The rope which operates the cart of the dumb-waiter runs in a wheel with a very shallow groove, so that the rope is liable to and does at times slip off. ... The cart has no shock absorbers at the top, so that when it strikes the top of the shaft or wheel there is a loud report. ... e ropes of the dumb-waiter strike such wall at frequent intervals with a loud report. ... e dumb-waiter is often negligently operated, by running it faster than necessary, and by letting it go down with a sudden fall. Via
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
. (Original from the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
. Digitized August 3, 2007.)

More recent dumbwaiters can be more sophisticated, using electric motors, automatic control systems, and custom freight containers of other kinds of elevators. Recently constructed book

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

s in libraries and mail or other freight transports in office towers may be larger than many dumbwaiters in public restaurants and private homes, supporting loads as heavy as 450 kg (1000 lbs).

Regulations governing construction and operation

Building codes have regulated the construction and operation of dumbwaiters in parts of North America since the 19th century. Modern dumbwaiters in the United States and Canada must comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) codes and, therefore, have features similar to those of passenger elevators.See

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

A17.1 covers safety for new elevators; A17.2, elevator inspection; A17.3, safety for existing elevators; and A17.4, emergency procedures, including those applying to modern dumbwaiters. The construction, operation and usage of dumbwaiters varies widely according to country.

In history

Margaret Bayard Smith Margaret Bayard Smith (20 February 1778 – 7 June 1844) was an American author and political commentator in the early Republic of the United States, a time when women generally lived within strict gender roles. Her writings and relationship ...

wrote that former U.S. President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

had kept dumbwaiters at both the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and his

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

estate whenever she visited him at both places. Smith also wrote that these dumbwaiters were built to reduce the number of servants who could be near dining rooms, thus having more privacy in conversations which at times contained sensitive information which could have been leaked outside the White House. After defecting from the Soviet underground in 1938,

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

gave a last stash of stolen documents to his nephew-in-law,

Nathan Levine Nathan Levine (January 18, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American labor lawyer and real estate attorney in Brooklyn, New York, who, as attorney for his uncle, Whittaker Chambers, testified regarding his uncle's "life preserver." This packet in ...

, who hid them in a dumbwaiter in his mother's house in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. A decade later, Chambers asked his nephew to retrieve them (which Chambers referred to as his "life preserver"). Handwritten and typewritten papers therein came from

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...

and

Harry Dexter White Harry Dexter White (October 29, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was a senior U.S. Treasury department official. Working closely with the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financial policy toward the Allies of World W ...

(and became known as the "Baltimore Documents"). Microfilm contained therein was subpoenaed and sensationalized (misnamed the "

Pumpkin Papers The Pumpkin Papers are a set of typewritten, handwritten, and microfilmed documents, stolen from the US federal government (thus information leaks) by members of the Ware Group and other Soviet spy networks in Washington, DC, during 1937-1938, wi ...

" in the press) by

Richard M Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

for

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

In popular culture

*In "The Honeymooners" Lost Episode "One Big Happy Family" (shown on April 9, 1955). In this episode, both the Kramdens and Nortons decide to share an apartment in order to save on living expenses. Matters, however, did not go well as anticipated. *In

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

's 1960 play ''

The Dumb Waiter ''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. "Small but perfectly formed, ''The Dumb Waiter'' might be considered the best of Harold Pinter's early plays, more consistent than ''The Birthday Party'' and sharper tha ...

'', a dumbwaiter forms a key element. *In Season 3, Episode 13 of ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...

'', Cpl. LeBeau (

Robert Clary Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman; March 1, 1926 – November 16, 2022) was a French actor mainly active in the United States. He is best known for his role in the television sitcom ''Hogan's Heroes'' as Corporal Louis LeBeau (1965–197 ...

) uses a dumbwaiter to access a German banquet room and steal valuable information ahead of a planned explosion. *In Season 3, Episode 2 of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'', a talking statue of Thomas Jefferson tells Lisa the dumbwaiter is one of his important life accomplishments. *In the movie ''

Home Alone 3 ''Home Alone 3'' is a 1997 American family comedy film directed by Raja Gosnell in his directorial debut, produced by John Hughes, and starring Alex D. Linz and Haviland Morris. The film tells the story of an 8-year-old boy who defends his hom ...

'', Alex Pruitt played by

Alex D. Linz Alexander David Linz (born January 3, 1989) is an American former child actor who starred in several late 1990s and early 2000s films and television series. His film roles include ''Home Alone 3'' (1997) and ''Max Keeble's Big Move'' (2001). He ...

uses a dumbwaiter in his home to escape his home and against the criminals trying to catch him. *In season 6, episode 12 of ''

King of Queens ''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the sho ...

'' (2004), in a flashback, Doug wants to buy a house with a conversation pit and a dumbwaiter. *In Season 2, Episode 6 of ''

Brooklyn Nine-Nine ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' is an American police procedural comedy television series that aired on Fox, and later on NBC. The show aired from September 17, 2013, to September 16, 2021, for a total of eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan G ...

'', the evidence against the defendant of a criminal trial related to a diamond heist is found in his apartment's dumbwaiter. * In The 2003 movie '' Duplex'', a dumbwaiter is used to illegally access an upstairs apartment. * In the 2005 movie '' Zathura: A Space Adventure'', a dumbwaiter is used by Danny to hide from the Zorgons. * In the 2012 version of ''

Littlest Pet Shop Littlest Pet Shop is a toy franchise and cartoon series owned by Hasbro. The original toy series was produced by Kenner in the early 1990s. An animated television series was made in 1995 by Sunbow Productions and Jean Chalopin Creativite et Devel ...

'', the main character, Blythe Baxter, uses a dumbwaiter to travel between her room and the titular pet shop located below her apartment. * In Season 10, Episode 25 of

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...

, An Old-Fashioned Wedding, a dumbwaiter is featured throughout the episode. Kelly, wearing a wedding dress, uses it to hide from her father. Carla rides (and is dropped) in it with a dead minister. * On "

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' star ...

", Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney communicate with upstairs neighbors Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman by screaming up the dumbwaiter shaft connecting their apartments.

Gallery

Image:Kawauchi ES dumbwaiter.jpg, In Japan Image:Matot Dumbwaiter Restored.JPG, Matot rope-pulled dumbwaiter, circa 1940 Image:18_03_120_toombs.jpg, Robert Toombs House

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumbwaiter (Elevator) Building engineering Elevators