Earthquake-causing elevator discovered in Seattle Sheraton

The elevators in the Seattle Sheraton are fitted with buttons that allow their riders to rain earthquakes upon the Pacific Northwest. This power is largely used for good, and that is rather affirming -- people really are quite nice.

EARTHQUAKE button, Sheraton, Seattle, WA, USA

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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seattlerebecca

That’s great. It starts with an earthquake…
Brainspore

A lot of cities inexplicably have building codes demanding escape routes for fires. Why the hell would I want to let a raging inferno escape the building, I ask you?
- CLamb
  
  It’s been my experience that the fires don’t obey the signs anyway.
anonymity86

We have this at my office in Santa Monica too. Ever wonder why there are never earthquakes on weekends?
Matthew Dockrey

The public health building a couple blocks from there has one as well. I never summoned the nerve to try pushing it.
pupdog

Shouldn’t there be more motion-blur to the picture?
- fr4nk
  
  That’s more like it. :P
  - DreamboatSkanky
    
    You’re pushing it.
V

Yes. However, when you push it, it doesn’t indicate where the earthquake will occur.
- DreamboatSkanky
  
  But you get a large some of money! (And then the button goes to some one else…)
bob90210

The earthquake button does not create earthquakes. That’s ridiculous. Instead, if you press the earthquake button, the elevator will take you to the nearest earthquake.
http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

Hopefully it’s next to this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinklovesbrown/2528034823/
bzishi

It all sounds like a good idea, but you have to remember that you will be in an elevator when you cause the earthquake. Only people who desperately need an earthquake would ever push that button.
Steve Peterson

That’s a Matheson button. If you push it, the earthquake will happen to someone you don’t know. But when the next person who doesn’t know you pushes it, you’ll be the next target.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic
  
  great, but where’s my briefcase full of money?
legsmalone

From the flickr comments:

“you made boingboing.”
“I edit boingboing”
- sockdoll
  
  So editors are a kind of maker, right?
  - legsmalone
    
    I took it more as a, “Wow, flickr person, your post made it to a popular blog.” And then Cory said, “Yeah, dummy. I edit it.”
    
    But that’s only my interpretation.
PathosBill

This is the result of the same sloppy thinking that leaves us with airport announcements stating “due to security, all liquids must be [too small to last the length of your trip].”It’s the opposite of security that mandates that.
Ben Schiendelman

As a Seattle resident just a couple of blocks from the Sheraton, I want to let you know what it does! It takes the elevator to the nearest floor, (likely) locks the brakes, and opens the doors. At that point, to use the elevator again, you have to reset it with a key. It also may just be a light – if so, it does that upon detecting seismic activity, and the light turns on to let you know why the elevator no longer works. :)
showme

James Bond uses it all the time when he makes martinis.
Ryan Lenethen

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
LiquidOC

This is actually a visual indicator that is either activated by a “ringer” style system, whereby the counterweight has an arm attached to it that is essentially grounded that runs around a wire that has a constant voltage pushed through it, if the counterweight is displaced by an earthquake, the arm shorts the circuit, and places the elevator on Emergency Earthquake Service, it moves to the next floor AWAY from the counterweight, and stops until the control circuits are manually reset, or you may put the elevator into emergency operation via a keyswitch in the car and observe where the counterweights are in the hoistway and whether or not they were actually displaced from their guiding means. Emergency Earthquake Service may also be required to be activated based on a seismic sensor which is located in the machine room for the elevator, attached to one of the structural members present in the same room, and wired into the control circuits that way. If it’s a button, it’s merely by coincidence, and cannot do a danged thing to cause an earthquake.

Source: I’m a freaking elevator inspector!
- howaboutthisdangit
  
  Oh well, there go MY diabolical plans.