John Quittner
Quittner, John (1919-2010)
John Quittner was born in Hungary in 1919. His life journey is best told by his obituary as published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 29 July 2010 and this may be accessed using the link:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-man-of-suspended-animation-20100728-10vyk.html
He, his wife Eva, and their four-year-old son George, came to Australia in 1956 as refugees, first from the Holocaust and then post war upheaval in Hungary.
His speciality was the design of equipment for service and maintenance in difficult to access situations. His most enduring and often seen invention is the 'road-zipper'machine which moves concrete lane separating barriers to allow for tidal flow on busy roads. Quittner originally designed the device for use on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, though it was never installed. It was however installed on many roads in other countries, including that across the Golden Gate in Sans Francisco. More recently it has been installed on arterial roads in Sydney, including Victoria Road.
This engineering appreciation of the work of John Quittner focusses on more humble examples of his ingenuity and creativity - two domestic lifts built in his home at Castle Cove, Sydney. Engineers Heritage Sydney was invited to view and document these objects by George Quittner following the passing of Eva in 2022, and the pending sale of the home.
The house sits on a block with significant topography with access by stairs from the street, or though the garage built below the main floor level. A studio for Eva, an accomplished artist, was created above the living areas, though it was not accessible except by an external staircase.
No clear 'well' in which a lift could be fitted was available so Quittner's solution was to use the space occupied by the existing steel-framed and timber-treaded staircase. The car of the lift is below the higher steps of the flight and when it rises the top four treads rise with it, until the car reaches the upper level where it opens to the landing at the top of the stairs. The mechanism is a large diameter screw driving a nut attached to the lift car, with the motor in a well in the lower floor. There are numerous interlocks and screens for safety, several photo cells which stop the motion of the lift if too close an approach is made by persons not in the car, and an emergency escape is provided by a rope link to a release which allows the car to descend by gravity down the well greased thread to the lower position.
The lift from the living room to the art studio is an object of whimsy. The circular lift 'cage' is formed from round bars. These are probably concrete reinforcing bars, as other more substantial sections such as the handrails on the internal and external stairways in the house are certainly twisted square reinforcing bars! Such is the resemblance to a gilded bird cage, with its hemispherical top, that it is made to be what it looks and feels like, by the addition of several replicas of our avian friends - and it is painted gold!
The lift operates by means of a winch set inside the roof space of the upper room. As this is inaccessible for maintenance, a boat winch is provided and operated by a 12 volt battery, to lower the main winch to the floor for occasional service. The moving cage is protected with numerous interlocks and limit switches for safety sake. For forgetfulness sake and as a means of rescue should the lift stop in mid flight, the interlocking arrangements include a holder for the household's remote phone handset, provided before mobile phones were so common place. The lift will not operate without a remote-phone-sized object in the holder, though in 2022 a finger works well enough as true mobile phones are the wrong shape.
With John and Eva now passed, the lifts will probably be disabled and/or dismantled before the house is sold into the general market.
George and Mary Rose Quittner are justly proud of John's cleverness and achievements and were delighted to invite and host Engineers Australia members John Lee and Bill Phippen to inspect, ride and photograph the lifts.
