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36-409: Bleichert , short for Adolf Bleichert & Co. , was a German engineering firm founded in 1874 by Adolf Bleichert. The company dominated the aerial wire ropeway industry during the first half of the 20th century, and its portfolio included cranes, electric cars, elevators, and mining and ship-loading equipment. It ceased operations in 1993. In 1872, Adolf Bleichert started the design and manufacture of

72-595: A cable-hauled elevated railway . This 3½ mile long line was proposed in 1866 and opened in 1868. It operated as a cable railway until 1871 when it was converted to use steam locomotives . The next development of the cable car came in California. Andrew Hallidie , a Scottish emigre, gave San Francisco the first effective and commercially successful route, using steel cables, opening the Clay Street Hill Railroad on August 2, 1873. Hallidie

108-652: A bridge connection between the adjacent cabins. The main advantage of the funifor system is its stability in high wind conditions owing to the horizontal distance between the two support ropes. Chairlifts are continuously circulating systems carrying chairs, which usually enable skiers to board without removing skis. They are a common type of lift at most ski areas and in mountainous areas. They can also be found at some amusement parks and tourist attractions. Detachable chairlifts usually move far faster than fixed-grip chairlifts, typically 5 m/s (16.4 ft/s) compared with 2 to 2.5 m/s (6.6 to 8.2 ft/s). Because

144-623: A separate moving rope provides propulsion. The grip of an aerial tramway is permanently fixed onto the propulsion rope. Aerial trams used for urban transport include the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City , as well as the Portland Aerial Tram . A gondola lift consists of a continuously circulating cable that is strung between two or more stations, over intermediate supporting towers. The cable

180-403: A single haul cable is looped round twice. Funitels combine a short time between successive cabins with a high capacity (20 to 30 people) per cabin. A funifor is a type of cable car with two support ropes and a haul rope, looped around. Each system is composed of a single cabin shuttling back-and-forth. Many installations are built with two parallel, but independent, lines. The funifor design

216-538: A single rope wound around a winding drum and connecting the trains of wagons on the tracks. Loaded wagons at the top of the incline are lowered down, their weight hauling empty wagons from the bottom. The winding drum has a brake to control the rate of travel of the wagons. The first use of a gravity incline isn't recorded, but the Llandegai Tramway at Bangor in North Wales was opened in 1798, and

252-470: Is a fusion of a gondola lift and a chair lift. The company Leitner refers to it as telemix , while Doppelmayr uses the term combination lift . An example is Ski Arlberg 's Weibermahd lift in Vorarlberg ( Austria ) which alternates between 8-person chairlifts and 10-person gondolas. In undeveloped areas with rough terrain, simple hand-powered cable-cars may be used for crossing rivers, such as

288-586: Is disputed. American inventor Peter Cooper is one early claimant, constructing an aerial tramway using wire rope in Baltimore 1832, to move landfill materials. Though there is only partial evidence for the claimed 1832 tramway, Cooper was involved in many of such tramways built in the 1850s, and in 1853 he built a two-mile-long tramway to transport iron ore to his blast furnaces at Ringwood, New Jersey . World War I motivated extensive use of military tramways for warfare between Italy and Austria. During

324-419: Is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal, which is connected to an engine or electric motor . Multiple gondola cabins are attached to the cable, usually with detachable grips, enabling them to slow down in the stations to facilitate safe boarding. Fixed grip variants exist, although these are considerably less common. Lifts with a single cable are sometimes referred to as "mono-cable" gondola lifts. Depending on

360-531: Is one of the earliest examples using iron rails. The first cable-hauled street railway was the London and Blackwall Railway , built in 1840, which used fibre to grip the haulage rope. This caused a series of technical and safety issues, which led to the adoption of steam locomotives by 1848. The first Funicular railway was opened in Lyon in 1862. The Westside and Yonkers Patent Railway Company developed

396-543: The Peak 2 Peak Gondola (Canada). A funitel differs from a standard gondola lift through the use of two overhead arms, attached to two parallel haul cables, providing more stability in high winds. The name funitel is a blend of the French words funiculaire and telepherique . Systems may sometimes be referred to as "double monocable" (DMC), where two separate haul cables are used, or "double loop monocable" (DLM) where

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432-648: The Republic of the Congo , was over 75 km in length. The Norsjö aerial tramway in Sweden had a length of 96 kilometers. The following abbreviations are frequently used in the industry: Cable transport Cable transport is a broad class of transport modes that have cables . They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars . The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing, or by drives within

468-533: The Union Pacific Railroad , William Averell Harriman owned America's first ski resort, Sun Valley, Idaho . He asked his design office to tackle the problem of lifting skiers to the top of the resort. Curran, a Union Pacific bridge designer, adapted a cable hoist he had designed for loading bananas in Honduras to create the first ski lift . More recent developments are being classified under

504-507: The tuin used in Nepal. A material ropeway or ropeway conveyor is an aerial lift from which containers for goods rather than passenger cars are suspended. These are usually monocable or bicable gondola lifts . Material ropeways are typically found around large mining concerns, and can be of considerable length. The COMILOG Cableway , which ran from Moanda in Gabon to Mbinda in

540-644: The Bleichert company developed a specific field cable car used by German military forces in mountain warfare in the Vosges Mountains, the Alps , and Balkan areas. Until World War I the Bleichert company manufactured many aerial cable cars especially for material carriage, but also for passenger transportation. Among them are the following: Bleichert mainly built material-carrying wire ropeways, but then diversified into passenger cable cars as well, such as

576-441: The cable moves faster than most passengers could safely disembark and load, each chair is connected to the cable by a powerful spring-loaded cable grip which detaches at terminals, allowing the chair to slow considerably for convenient loading and unloading at a typical speed of 0.75 m/s (2.5 ft/s), a speed slower even than fixed-grip. Chairs may be fitted with a "bubble" canopy to offer weather protection. A hybrid lift

612-409: The company had been privatized and entered liquidation, halting production of cranes, conveyance, and pit mining equipment — thus concluding the history of the oldest and largest wire ropeway manufacturer of the world. Aerial lift An aerial lift , also known as a cable car or ropeway , is a means of cable transport in which cabins , cars , gondolas , or open chairs are hauled above

648-559: The country that made the greatest use of cable railways; by 1890 more than 500 miles of cable-hauled track had been laid, carrying over 1,000,000 passengers per year. However, in 1890, electric tramways exceeded the cable hauled tramways in mileage, efficiency and speed. The first surface lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach / Eisenbach , Hochschwarzwald and started operations February 14, 1908. A steam-powered toboggan tow, 950 feet (290 m) in length,

684-665: The defeat of Nazi Germany, Leipzig —the Saxon city where much of the company's factories were centered—fell on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH was taken over by the occupying power, the Soviet Union, and renamed SAG Bleichert. In 1954, SAG Bleichert was transferred to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and was renamed VEB Bleichert. Soon thereafter,

720-932: The design of the individual lift, the capacity, cost, and functionality of a gondola lift will differ dramatically. Because of the proliferation of such systems in the Alpine regions of Europe , the French language name of télécabine is also used in an English language context. Gondola lifts are also used for urban transportation. Examples include the Singapore Cable Car , Metrocable (Medellín) , Metrocable (Caracas) , Mi Teleférico ( La Paz ), and London Cable Car . Gondola lifts which feature one stationary 'support' rope and one haul rope are known as bi-cable gondola lifts, while lifts that feature two support ropes and one haul rope are known as tri-cable gondola lifts. Examples include Ngong Ping Skyrail ( Hong Kong ) and

756-1002: The famous Predigtstuhl Aerial Tramway in the Alps, the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car , Krossobanen in Norway, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway in South Africa, Burgberg Cable Car in Germany, Aeri de Montserrat in Catalunya and the Port Vell Aerial Tramway crossing the Port of Barcelona from Torre Sant Sebastia via Torre Jaume I to Montjuïc. By the company's 50th anniversary in 1924, Adolf Bleichert & Co. had designed and built

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792-424: The firm was continued under the name VEB Transportanlagenfabrik Bleichert Leipzig. In 1955, the company name changed again to VEB Schwermaschinenbau Verlade- und Transportanlagen Leipzig vorm.Bleichert . By 1959, the last reference to the original family business disappeared, as vorm.Bleichert was dropped from the firm's name. Between 1962 and 1985, this entity went through several iterations. However, by 1991,

828-590: The first wire ropeway, also known as the aerial lift , in Teutschenthal ( Saxony , Germany). With the successful start-up of this installation, Adolf Bleichert and Theodor Otto founded a company for the manufacture of wire ropeways in 1874 in Gohlis , near Leipzig. This was the beginning of Adolf Bleichert & Co. which in 50 years, developed into a world-renowned company of the highest standing. In 1881, Bleichert moved its offices to Leipzig-Gohlis, which became

864-624: The ground by means of one or more cables . Aerial lift systems are frequently employed in a mountainous territory where roads are relatively difficult to build and use, and have seen extensive use in mining. Aerial lift systems are relatively easy to move and have been used to cross rivers and ravines. In more recent times, the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of aerial lifts have seen an increase of gondola lift being integrated into urban public transport systems. A cable car ( British English ) or an aerial tramway , aerial tram ( American English ), uses one or two stationary ropes for support while

900-548: The increase, the social effects are beginning to become more significant. In 2018 the highest 3S cablecar has been inaugurated in Zermatt , Switzerland after more than two years of construction. This cablecar is also called the "Matterhorn Glacier ride" and it allows passengers to reach the top of the Klein Matterhorn mountain (3883m) When compared to trains and cars, the volume of people to transport over time and

936-415: The industrial revolution, new forms of cable-hauled transportation systems were created including the use of steel cable to allow for greater load support and larger systems. Aerial tramways were first used for commercial passenger haulage in the 1900s. The earliest form of cable railway was the gravity incline , which in its simplest form consists of two parallel tracks laid on a steep gradient, with

972-527: The main factory facility located in a much bigger plant and was also the company headquarters. Starting in 1888, Bleichert also expanded into the North American market by concluding a license agreement with the American company Cooper, Hewitt & Co., the parent company of Trenton Iron Inc., which constructed and sold many material wire ropeways based on the Bleichert system. During World War I ,

1008-802: The object being moved on cableways . The use of pulleys and balancing of loads moving up and down are common elements of cable transport. They are often used in mountainous areas where cable haulage can overcome large differences in elevation. Forms of cable transport in which one or more cables are strung between supports of various forms and cars are suspended from these cables. Forms of cable transport where cars on rails are hauled by cables. The rails are usually steeply inclined and usually at ground level. Other forms of cable-hauled transport. Rope-drawn transport dates back to 250 BC as evidenced by illustrations of aerial ropeway transportation systems in South China . The first recorded mechanical ropeway

1044-422: The start-up cost of the project must be a consideration. In areas with extensive road networks, personal vehicles offer greater flexibility and range. Remote places like mountainous regions and ski slopes may be difficult to link with roads, making cable transport project a much easier approach. A cable transport project system may also need fewer invasive changes to the local environment. The use of Cable Transport

1080-555: The type of track that their design is based upon. After the success of this operation, several other projects were initiated in New Zealand and Chicago . The social climate around pollution is allowing for a shift from cars back to the utilization of cable transport due to their advantages. However, for many years they were a niche form of transportation used primarily in difficult-to-operate conditions for cars (such as on ski slopes as lifts). Now that cable transport projects are on

1116-646: The world's record-holding wire ropeways : longest and highest elevation (Argentina), length of system over water (New Caledonia), steepest (Tanzania), highest capacity (France), northernmost (Norway), and southernmost (Chile). In 1926, the company went public, though it was controlled by Bleichert's two sons, Max and Paul von Bleichert. Due to the Great Depression and the collapse of the German banking system, on 4 April 1932 Bleichert & Co. filed for bankruptcy. Its successor, Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH ,

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1152-764: Was a manufacturer of steel cables. The system featured a human-operated grip, which was able to start and stop the car safely. The rope that was used allowed the multiple, independent cars to run on one line, and soon Hallidie's concept was extended to multiple lines in San Francisco. The first cable railway outside the United Kingdom and the United States was the Roslyn Tramway , which opened in 1881, in Dunedin , New Zealand . America remained

1188-721: Was built in Truckee, California , in 1910. The first skier-specific tow in North America was apparently installed in 1933 by Alec Foster at Shawbridge in the Laurentians outside Montreal , Quebec . The modern J-bar and T-bar mechanism was invented in 1934 by the Swiss engineer Ernst Constam, with the first lift installed in Davos, Switzerland . The first chairlift was developed by James Curran in 1936. The co-owner of

1224-466: Was by Venetian Fausto Veranzio who designed a bi-cable passenger ropeway in 1616. The industry generally considers Dutchman Adam Wybe to have built the first operational system in 1644. The technology, which was further developed by the people living in the Alpine regions of Europe, progressed and expanded with the advent of wire rope and electric drive. The first use of wire rope for aerial tramways

1260-564: Was developed by the Italian manufacturer, Hölzl, which later merged with Doppelmayr Italia. Today, the design is therefore patented by Doppelmayr Garaventa Group . At the top of each track, the haul rope loops back to the bottom instead of looping over to serve the other track, as would occur with a normal aerial tramway . This is shown in the diagram below. This feature allows for a single cabin operation when traffic warrants. The independent drive also allows for evacuations to occur by means of

1296-579: Was incorporated on 28 June 1932 to carry on the firm's work. Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH also became sole shareholder of Adolf Bleichert & Co. Drahtseilbahn GmbH , the people-mover manufacturing entity. Bleichert-Kabelbagger GmbH —the wire rope crane division—became an independent entity, though also declared bankruptcy on 4 July 1932. No longer under Bleichert family control, the Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH factory continued to produce during World War II . With

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