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Other Atlas

Dumbwaiters

Dumbwaiters

ELEMENT

Dumbwaiters are small elevators designed to move food from floor to floor in a building. They may be found in hospitals, retirement homes, and mansions. Often they connect the kitchens to a dining room or bedroom. In narratives dumbwaiters may be used by characters to move throughout a building. They may connect to hidden rooms.

Synonyms: food elevators
Example Mythonyms: the old dumbwaiter

Designing Fictional Dumbwaiters

Overview

Fictional dumbwaiters are often used by characters to spy on unsuspecting persons, to escape from pursuers, or to move between floors of old buildings and find hidden rooms and basements. Often these dumbwaiters are no longer in regular use and have been boarded up, allowing their discovery to serve as an interesting plot point. They often serve a similar narrative role as laundry chutes.

While modern dumbwaiters are electric, their older counterparts were raised or lowered by hand using a rope and pulley system. Severing these ropes may have dire consequences for any characters (or food) within the dumbwaiter.

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