The Evolution of The Balsam Lake Elevator Company!
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My wife and I waited a long time before building our new family dwelling on the shore of Balsam Lake. Of the many design criteria we had in mind, two speak to the evolution of "The Balsam Lake Elevator Company" automata. Firstly, our home was to be a multigenerational dwelling accommodating 4 generations of our family. Secondly we wanted to bring the outdoors in with large windows and a pleasant view, both of which would be enhanced by a second storey. Accommodating accessibility issues, both present and future, lead us to choose a residential elevator in lieu of any grand staircase for our new home.
As the house design progressed it seemed only fitting that displaying my automata passion should be reflected in the decor. But as I laid thinking in bed at night it came to me that integrating the movement of the elevator with an automata would be both interesting and amusing to any visitors. I would place the automata close to the elevator so that the connection between the two was obvious, and I would build it in a niche in the wall so as not to occupy floor space. Lastly, I chose rats, mice, spiders and bugs as characters since they are the most likely things to be hanging around in the walls of a house. The only thing left was designing a mechanism that mimicked the elevator movement but was operated by the characters listed above! So with the cooperation of the elevator supplier, and our builder, we were able to create a little bit of additional magic to our home that will be a legacy to my love of making these whimsical devices. Read the story of the vignette and the cast of characters below. |
This is Otis the elevator cab lift operator.
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Automata "The Balsam Lake Elevator Company" Video
Story of "The Balsam Lake Elevator Company"
Rats are the ones doing the heavy lifting in this business. They are supported by a community of mice who do miscellaneous administrative tasks and a few of them aspire to take on greater roles in the company, however others seem satisfied just to hang out in the hoist room watching the activity. A couple of ambitious mice have started an elevator training school teaching the basics of elevator mechanics to the youngsters. Not everyone is attentive! While the rats work on 12 hour shifts recorded on the punch cards at the time clock in the hoist room, the mice work for food scraps. They are just happy to have somewhere warm to live without cats! The wasps on the other hand just simply showed up one day finding a crack somewhere to squeeze into the house. As long as their numbers stay low nobody seems to mind them. They do provide the benefit of adding a little air circulation with their wings which is much appreciated, especially by the rats! The spider moved in sometime during the house construction and seems content with the occasional fly it traps its web. Like any elevator company it has its ups and downs but things seem to run pretty smoothly to the delight of passengers and hoist room observers.