The elevator car would climb the cable up and down without the need for all that heavy fuel.

电梯轿厢可以在缆绳上爬上爬下，而不需要那么重的燃料。

Otis achieved this by designing his elevator with a mechanism between the cable and the elevator car consisting of two levers.

奥蒂斯通过在电缆和电梯轿厢之间设计一个由两个杠杆组成的机构来实现这一点。

As the elevator car moved up the tower, an operator would adjust the pitch of the floor to ensure passengers remained horizontal.

当电梯轿厢向上移动时，操作员会调整楼层的间距，以确保乘客保持水平。

You shudder as you imagine taking a wild ride on top of a runaway elevator car, and you climb down from the railing.

当你想象自己在轿厢上来一场疯狂的旅行时你不寒而栗，然后你从栏杆上爬了下来。

OK. Fine. But what's going to hold this ribbon up and keep it reach enough to support an elevator car?

好的。美好的。但是，是什么将这条丝带举起来并保持足以支撑电梯轿厢的高度呢？

This method enables a continuous flow of elevator cars to operate within a single shaft — with all cars travelling in the same direction without fear of collision.

这种方法使电梯在一个竖井内连续运行，所有电梯都朝着同一个方向运行，而不用担心发生碰撞。

However, with elevator cars moving very slowly and numerous instances of passengers becoming crushed or losing limbs, Paternosters were phased-out by the 1970s and less than 300 examples remain in operation today.

然而，由于这种电梯移动非常缓慢，导致乘客被压伤或失去肢体的事故层出，到 20 世纪 70 年代，Paternosters 被逐步淘汰，至今仍在使用的只有不到 300 个。

A space elevator is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: get onto an elevator car, press the " up" button, and then exit when you've reached the top floor somewhere around 26,098 miles above the Earth .

太空电梯几乎就是字面的样子：进入电梯轿厢，按下“向上”按钮，然后到达顶层，走出电梯，你就来到了地球上方约 26,098 英里。