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The 13th Floor

Casinos in Las Vegas are supposedly missing the 13th floor fairly regularly; I believer the Trump Tower and Caesar's Palace both skip it.

Still, one has to wonder if bad luck actually follows our numbering scheme, or if it just haunts the 14th floor instead? Is it that easy to trick?
 
Ah, a topic I can comment on in a professional capacity.
I am a licensed elevator mechanic. I have installed, maintained and inspected many elevators in Ohio. The thirteenth floor..... We address this in our first year of elevator school. The number 13 is avoided for "historical" reasons is how it was put to me, I asked my instructor if he did not mean for superstitious reasons, he replied, we say historical. ;) The designers of vertical transportation take this into account when they do their job and often create designations other than numerical, such as, Lobby, mezzanine, penthouse etc. I have installed many 13 stop elevators and I can not recall wiring a 13th floor landing. As a matter of fact we will refer to the 13th as above 12 or below 14, but then construction workers tend to be a little bit superstitious. There are many UL's concerning elevators and I think I may start a new thread to address them. As an aside, I would like you folks to know that the vertical transportation industry moves more people safely every day than all other public conveyances combined.

13 steps up to the gallows and 13 turns on the noose :shock:

Peace
=^..^=217
 
BuckeyeJones said:
There are many UL's concerning elevators and I think I may start a new thread to address them.
In the field of vertical transportation we already have 'Carnage on the Escalators'
(which also includes info on Paternoster Lifts). 8)
 
"They figured that each floor was about 10 feet and they got off at the top floor which, was something like 17 or so. The guy jumped and hit the ground. They forgot that the building doesn't have a 13th floor and thus the cord was about 10 feet too long. "

...which wouldn't make much difference - that close to the end of the stretch, you'd be going fairly slowly and death would not be likely. The 'about 10 feet' is just as big a risk factor, though organising a bungee jump under the infleunce sounds like a bigger one...so, we do suspect this one is an UL
 
melf said:
maybe this is the reason that some buildings dont have a 13th floor :shock: :-

http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/TheG ... or/1.1.htm

and

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/max13.htm

(from the uk comic:- "scream")

Fantastic comic (a bit O.T. sorry), I still have every issue of this shortlived beauty (before it merged with Battle Action or something else as IPC comics tended to do when one wasn't performing), a kind of British Tales from the Crypt with the similar morality tale structure.
 
I used to get that comic when I was a kid, I'd forgotten about the 13th Floor strip though.

I think that it eventually amalgamated with the new relaunched Eagle, as I was getting that at the same time. I used to love the strips though. Was House of Damien in that one as well?

I wonder if my missing Flat 6 has slipped into some nightmare otherworld at the whim of a crazed computer? I may have to tool up and go investigating tonight...
 
Jolly Jack said:
I used to get that comic when I was a kid, I'd forgotten about the 13th Floor strip though.

I think that it eventually amalgamated with the new relaunched Eagle, as I was getting that at the same time. I used to love the strips though. Was House of Damien in that one as well?

I wonder if my missing Flat 6 has slipped into some nightmare otherworld at the whim of a crazed computer? I may have to tool up and go investigating tonight...

There was The Dracula File, Monster and the Library of Death.

Here's a website I just found, oooh I feel nostalgic:

http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/home.htm
 
Slightly OT but last night I dreamt I went back to New Scotland Yard looking for the 13th floor. :shock: Must.......get......a.......life......
 
Something about this topic rings a bell in the back of my mind. I'm sure there is a government agency, military agency that doesn't use the number 13. For the life of me, I can't seem to remember. :?
 
I just want to add that the 4th floor isn`t omitted in China only, but also in Japan. As Japanese isn`t tonal like Chinese, "4" sounds exactly like "death". Most of the time you can avoid the bad luck of it by reading it differently (There are two ways to say "4" in Japanese) if the floor DOES exist, and it has been increasing in recent buildings.
The hospital I go to has a 4th floor, but it is not used for hospitalisations - as in there are no patient rooms. Just test rooms, etc.

Also, as I thought about this a bit more - 9 is also unlucky, as it can be read as "agony".

On a slightly different note, the number "4219" is pretty much as unlucky as you can get in Japan. It can be read as "Go to die"... Definitely NOT a number you want in your phone number or on your license plate.
 
Arigato Tamyu for answering why there are two words for 4. I've often wondered. I learnt chi for 4 and nana for 7. Why are there two 7's?
 
In France, and, I dare say, other parts of the world, the first floor is not the first floor, but the bottom floor. The second floor is the first floor, and so on.
A reason housing authorities may skip the number 13 as a house number, or otherwise, may not have so much to do with THEIR superstition as the possible lowering of that particular house's value because so many OTHER people are superstitious. We all had that house in our neighborhood that was almost always empty, families moving in and out. Houses earn reputations quite easily. So they might just skip that house number to avoid any potential problems.
 
I lived in a street that couldn't be found in the city A-Z book. And on the maps it always managed to be behind a staple on the spine of the book.

It had an odd name that didn't follow any of the other street names around it. It just didn't fit.
It's now a demolished ghetto.

It was my city's 'HellMouth' :D
 
amea_gari said:
In France, and, I dare say, other parts of the world, the first floor is not the first floor, but the bottom floor. The second floor is the first floor, and so on.
In the uk the floor that you enter the building on is the ground floor, the next is the first floor and so on. Basements are often called lower ground floor, especially by estate agents.
 
amea_gari said:
In France, and, I dare say, other parts of the world, the first floor is not the first floor, but the bottom floor. The second floor is the first floor, and so on.

You'll not belive it but in the good old USA, and dare i say, other parts of the world, the groung floor is called the first floor and the first floor the second floor, and so on!!!

It is logical that the ground floor is the floor at ground level. and the first floor level is the first suspended floor. the american system has the same logic as calling a new born baby 1year old. I personally think its and american penis envy thing and they just like everything to sound bigger.

Many large buildings will utilise the 13th floor as a plant area for heating - vent, fire services and landlords admin and storage, hence the appearance of an additional floor from outside and longer lift times. Or they miss out the 13th altogether as the land lord would not be able to demand the same rental as the rest of the building.

I live at number 15, the houses next door are 17 and 11, hence no 13. this is a newish home and the decicion on the house number was down to the developer not the council, to maximise the profit.

A lot of people who live at a number 13, tend to give there home a name instead of the number.

Hence it's not the builders, councils, landlords, architects etc that are supersticious. Its us! ;)

I belive that cinema, theatre, airopane and train seats also miss out number 13.
 
Theres a number 13 on my street but heck if you live on Cemetery road I guess you're not going to be funny about that kind of thing!
 
liveinabin said:
Theres a number 13 on my street but heck if you live on Cemetery road I guess you're not going to be funny about that kind of thing!

Didn't Auntie Snail have that as her subtitle for a while?
 
Indeed she did. I went down the road and knocked but I don't think she was in.
 
liveinabin said:
Arigato Tamyu for answering why there are two words for 4. I've often wondered. I learnt chi for 4 and nana for 7. Why are there two 7's?

Actually, that has nothing to do with why there are two ways to say the numbers. There are two ways to say *every* number. One set came from Chinese (Short, sharp sounding readings) and the other set is traditional Japanese. There is no superstitious reason for the two seperate sets - it usually just goes along the lines of "which one sounds best with what I`m counting".

By the way, it`s "shi" or "yon" for 4, and "shichi" or "nana" for 7.
 
liveinabin said:
Theres a number 13 on my street but heck if you live on Cemetery road I guess you're not going to be funny about that kind of thing!

Near where i live number 13 cemetry road also has a name on the gate 'Gravesend'

Suppose you'd have to have a sence of humor.
 
Tamyu said:
liveinabin said:
Arigato Tamyu for answering why there are two words for 4. I've often wondered. I learnt chi for 4 and nana for 7. Why are there two 7's?

Actually, that has nothing to do with why there are two ways to say the numbers. There are two ways to say *every* number. One set came from Chinese (Short, sharp sounding readings) and the other set is traditional Japanese. There is no superstitious reason for the two seperate sets - it usually just goes along the lines of "which one sounds best with what I`m counting".

By the way, it`s "shi" or "yon" for 4, and "shichi" or "nana" for 7.

When I was learning Japanese I found counting so complicated. I didn't learn the chinese one at it confused me to much. And the whole counting flat things one way and birds another. Too confusing.
 
Having heard this tale in my long ago youth; I looked for, and never found, during my years of staying in hotels across the globe......a floor 12a.

or a gap between twelve and fourteen.
 
buildings near here pretty much all skip the 13th floor, and go from 12 - 14
 
oh damn. i just remembered that i was in a towerblock the other day, for my driving theory test (it was on the 18th floor - the only time i've been further off the ground was in a plane!), and i forgot to check for a 13th.

my department at uni's main building has got a mezanine floor - very confusing, especially as at one point the lift buttons called it the first floor, so that you had to know to press the "3" when you wanted to go to the 2nd floor. it also has a mystery half-floor between the "top" floor and the roof, which nobody i know has access to or ever been to and whose purpose nobody seems to know (but it's fun to speculate).
 
fluffle said:
it also has a mystery half-floor between the "top" floor and the roof, which nobody i know has access to or ever been to and whose purpose nobody seems to know (but it's fun to speculate).

except maintenance staff servicing the ventilation plant!
 
Sombody i used to know lived in a number 13 house.

Nothing strange ever happened (well maybe the food kept going missing from the fridge everytime i went over :roll: ) but other then that everything was fine
 
Similar to all this is the fact cardiff central station dosen't have a platform 5, it has a platform 0 though.

The reason why isn't due to superstion though, as far as I'm aware it's because platform anouncements are made in Welsh and English. You see the thing about 5 in the Welsh language is it's spelt pump and pronounced 'pimp'. Aparently having a pimp platform should be avoided in cities with docks.
 
mah_magic said:
liveinabin said:
Theres a number 13 on my street but heck if you live on Cemetery road I guess you're not going to be funny about that kind of thing!

Near where i live number 13 cemetry road also has a name on the gate 'Gravesend'

Suppose you'd have to have a sence of humor.
Gravesend is a town on the lower Thames, for those who don't know.
Maybe it was the hometown of the occupants of No. 13...?
Origin of the name 'Gravesend'
The town is recorded as Gravesham in the Domesday Book in 1086 as belonging to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and called 'Gravesham': a name probably derived from "graaf-ham": the home of the Reeve, or Bailiff, of the Lord of the Manor. Another theory suggests that the name Gravesham may be a corruption of the words grafs-ham - a place 'at the end of the grove'. Myth has it that Gravesend got its name because, during the outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the 1600s, the town was the place where victims were no longer buried on land - they were buried at sea (the town sits next to the Thames Estuary). This myth can probably be discounted!

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Gr ... avesend.27

I wonder if there's a 13, Cemetery Road in Gravesend!
Might be interesting to write to the Occupier, and see if the mail gets bounced by the post office! :D
 
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