Paternoster

It's a dumbwaiter for people!

"It's not important," said the woman who took me to the Finance Office this morning, when I asked her to write down the name of this contraption for me. People keep telling me not to bother with Czech words because I'm here for such a short time, but I'm insatiably curious! I asked for six postcard stamps in Czech yesterday and it was wonderful. I made the woman laugh and then we had a nice conversation. I carry on with people in America too; it's the Shimp way. Here it gets old, only saying Dobrý den and Na shled. I need to be able to make unnecessary niceties with people.

Anyway this is the paternoster, and it turns out to not be a Czech word at all.

"First built in 1884 by Londoner J. E. Hall as the Cyclic Elevator, the name paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting the Lord's prayer."

Yes, pray you don't trip and crack your head open on your way out!