§ 14-16-1. Definitions.

Except as otherwise expressly provided, the following words, wherever used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings:

Amusement device means such devices as have fixed parts or frames, in which are movable parts, which carry persons up or down or in a vertical, oblique or more or less circular direction in any plane, or which give motion or acceleration to such persons, as a mode of amusement.

Board means the city board of elevator rules.

Director means the director of Memphis and Shelby County office of planning and development.

Division means the Memphis and Shelby County office of planning and development.

Dumbwaiter means a hoisting and lowering mechanism equipped with a car which moves in guides in a substantially vertical direction, the floor area of which does not exceed nine square feet, the total compartment height of which does not exceed four feet, the capacity of which does not exceed 500 pounds, and which is used exclusively for carrying freight. The term "dumbwaiter" shall not include a dumbwaiter installation placed out of active service.

Elevator means a hoisting and lowering mechanism equipped with a car or platform which moves in guides in a substantially vertical direction and which serves two or more floors of a building or structure.

Elevator inspector means the elevator safety engineer or other safety engineer employed by Shelby County who is licensed to inspect elevators.

Escalator means a power-driven, inclined, continuous stairway used for raising or lowering passengers.

Freight elevator means an elevator used primarily for carrying freight and on which only the operator and the persons necessary for loading and unloading are permitted to ride.

Hoistway means a shaftway for the travel of one or more elevators or dumbwaiters. It includes the pit and terminates at the underside of the overhead machinery space, floor or grating, or at the underside of the roof where the hoistway does not penetrate the roof. For the purpose of this chapter, the term "elevator" and the term "dumbwaiter" shall also include their hoistways together with hoistway enclosures and hoistway doors or gates giving entrance thereto and the elevator or dumbwaiter machinery enclosures.

Inspection includes all tests as required by the rules and regulations prescribed under this chapter.

Installation placed out of active service means an elevator or dumbwaiter whose suspension ropes have been removed, whose car and counterweight rest at the bottom of the hoistway and whose hoistway doors are permanently boarded up or barricaded on the hoistway side, or an escalator whose power feed lines have been disconnected and whose top and bottom entrances have been permanently boarded up or barricaded.

Licensed elevator inspector means an elevator inspector who has been issued a license to inspect elevators, dumbwaiters and escalators as provided in this chapter.

New installation: new elevator, dumbwaiter or escalator means a complete elevator, dumbwaiter or escalator installation, the application for the permit for the installation or relocation of which is filed on or after January 1, 1961. All other elevators, dumbwaiters or escalators shall be deemed to be existing installations.

Passenger elevator means an elevator that is used to carry persons other than the operator and persons necessary for loading and unloading.

Sidewalk elevator or hoist means a freight elevator which operates between a sidewalk or other area exterior to the building and floor levels inside the building area, which has no landing opening into the building at its upper limit of travel, and is within the space on a street or public way usually intended for the sidewalk.

Terms not defined. Terms other than listed above shall have the same meaning as defined in the Elevator Safety Code referred to in section 14-16-43.

(Code 1967, § 49-1; Code 1985, § 46-1)