> you can't have practical skyscrapers without inventing the elevator
There are a ton of apartments in China, Hong Kong and Singapore exceeding 10–20 floors or more without a single functional elevator. Skyscrapers have more to do with steel framing technology than peoplemoving. Regardless, elevators have existed from 200BC and you can see one in the movie Gladiator
>you can't have practical automobiles without inventing the windshield wiper
Streetcars operated for 20+ years at speeds up to 30mph with no wipers. You would just open one half of the windshield. Or use water-repellent glass coatings (similar to today)
I live in China, and the only building I know that has more than six floors but no elevator is in Chongqing, because it has another walk-in entry in the middle. The vertical distance between the entry and the destination is still fewer than six floors.
>There are a ton of apartments in China, Hong Kong and Singapore exceeding 10–20 floors or more without a single functional elevator
Citation needed. Chinese building codes require elevators for any residential building taller than 6 stories [0]. Hong Kong and Singapore certainly have similar regulations. Unless you're implying that elevators are frequently broken in these countries? Perhaps in poor, rural parts of China, but I'm doubtful this is the case in a wealthy country like Singapore. Indeed, local regulations in both Singapore [1] and Hong Kong [2] require validated monthly maintenance schedules of elevators.
I know nothing about this, however, today's codes are not the same as yesterday's codes. From what I understand, plenty of very tall housing blocks were built for factory workers and their families, which now get retrofitted with an elevator, or, as we say in the UK, a lift.
This enables people to stay in their own homes in old age. The lift is external to the building, making it relatively easy to install. The balconies, presumably built for mostly clothes-drying purposes in ye-olden-days, provide the access.
I don't know if this goes to 10-20 storeys, I am just chiming in because, yes, there were many high rise buildings without lifts and our ever-inventive Chinese friends have worked out a solution.
In sunny Scotland we have what non-Scottish people call 'apartment blocks' (closes) and some of these go up six storeys with no lifts. Moving house into one of these is fun, as you can imagine. You can get your steps in carrying 25Kg+ for half of your steps, to feel like you have just completed some type of marathon. On the positive side, you are unlikely to be robbed of everything, once you have moved in.
As for fire, this means lots of doors. You might have four doors to work with, two sets on the ground floor and two more on your own floor. These doors make the effort truly Herculean since you can't wedge them all open.
More generally, what amazes me about lifts in the UK is that there is a general lack of redundancy. Recently I had to go across the country by train with a bicycle and two massive rucksacks full of stuff. There were four connecting trains I needed to get. This would have been 'easy enough' if the lifts had been working. They were not working. Had there been two lifts per station then one could be out for maintenance, but no.
Pulleys and cranes will easily do everything you need for construction. Elevators aren't even that good for construction, because so much needs to be built to get them working.
There are a ton of apartments in China, Hong Kong and Singapore exceeding 10–20 floors or more without a single functional elevator. Skyscrapers have more to do with steel framing technology than peoplemoving. Regardless, elevators have existed from 200BC and you can see one in the movie Gladiator
>you can't have practical automobiles without inventing the windshield wiper
Streetcars operated for 20+ years at speeds up to 30mph with no wipers. You would just open one half of the windshield. Or use water-repellent glass coatings (similar to today)