I Tried To Climb The Ladder Of Death | Axel On The Edge

In his latest adventure, our reporter Axel Primavesi faces the so-called ladder of death! What is that? A structure with which miners were able to enter and leave the mines. And in the middle of Germany on the outskirts of Lower Saxony, such a death ladder is still in use today. The very last of these so-called “man engines” (built in 1837) that is fully functional can be found in a former mine in the Harz Mountains. In the 19th century, it was used to transport miners down the shafts of the mines.
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CREDITS
Report: Axel Primavesi
Camera: Marco Borowski
Edit: Marit Kober
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[@wheresmyeyebrow1608]

This is metal for real!

[@opticalecho119]

Europeans love wildly dangerous elevator technology. The hotel I stayed at in Paris had an elevator that was a game of life and death every time you used it.

[@dweuromaxx]

Hahah... I've experienced such an elevator of death in a German governmental building. It's called a Paternoster!

[@PTRMAN]

But why would you need to switch sides? Doesn't one side run all the way down while the other goes all the way up?

[@klausfohl1028]

Where would you store the surplus boards? This is not a paternoster thing. It used to be hung from a seesaw mechanism at the top.

[@DreamingAstro]

Think of a platformer game. It goes up and down but not all the way up and all the way down. One side you will take you higher or lower depending on which side you need to be on. It's hard to explain but in my head it's easy. Each platform has a ceiling height where it can't past and a floor low where it descend any further and that's why you switch

[@PTRMAN]

@@DreamingAstro Ah, now I get it. So on any given side there must be multiple "ladders", none of which actually run the entire way up or down. So you go up 10 or 20 feet, then hop to the other side for the next 10 or 20 feet, and so on. Thanks for that explanation. Very helpful!

[@dweuromaxx]

You are literally a @Dream Stepper 😆

[@GUTOMOFFICIAL]

😱

[@mateocolegial5571]

*Yeah Mann!!!*