I know it doesn't look like much by modern standards, but this isn't from the 1970s or 1980s...

我知道按照現代標準來看它看起來不太像，但這不是 1970 年代或 1980 年代的......

It was completed in 1939.

它於 1939 年竣工。

It was Administration Building Number 21, built to run the Baťa company,

這是 21 號行政大樓，為運營 Baťa 公司而建，

which had started as a small shoe manufacturer and grown into a huge multinational corporation across dozens of different industries with tens of thousands of employees.

該公司最初是一家小型鞋類製造商，後來發展成為橫跨數十個不同行業、擁有數万名員工的大型跨國公司。

And this building wasn't just modern in style.

對於二戰前的建築來說，這座建築的風格並不只是現代。

For a pre-World War 2 building, it's surprisingly advanced.

它的先進程度令人驚訝。

It has air conditioning and heating, adjustable for each floor.

每層樓都有可調節的空調和暖氣。

It has a couple of small Paternoster lifts for getting between adjacent floors which are a continuous chain of cabins that never stop.

它有幾部小型的 Paternoster 電梯，用於在相鄰樓層之間穿行，這些樓層是一連串的小木屋，從不間斷。

They're very efficient, just a little bit dangerous.

它們非常高效，只是有點危險。

And the boss has a corner office on every floor because the boss's office is an elevator.

老闆在每一層樓都有一間角落辦公室，因為老闆的辦公室就是一部電梯。

The control panel is next to the desk and we're going up.

控制面板就在桌子旁邊，我們要上去。

However, only the museum staff here are actually allowed to push the buttons.

不過，只有這裡的博物館工作人員才能真正按下按鈕。

So please enjoy this little bit of camera trickery.

請大家欣賞一下我的攝影技巧。

The folks who were showing me around didn't want to be on camera which is fair enough so I'm going to be your tour guide today.

帶我參觀的人不想上鏡，這也很正常。所以，今天就由我來當你們的導遊吧。

This elevator was built by Otis, the American elevator company, for Jan Antonín Baťa, the head of the company.

這部電梯是美國電梯公司奧的斯為該公司負責人揚·安東尼·巴塔建造的。

And the technical side of this is roughly the same as any other large goods lift:

其技術方面與任何其他大型貨物升降機大致相同：

Otis have built much bigger and heavier elevators than this.

奧的斯建造了比這更大、更重的電梯。

Scaling up to 5 m by 5 m is isn't too difficult and the furnishings don't have that much weight.

擴大到 5 米乘 5 米並不困難，而且傢俱的重量也不重。

It does have a few extra features: two telephones, one for local calls and one for international; plus separate lighting and air conditioning,

它確實有一些額外的功能：兩部電話，一部用於本地電話，一部用於國際電話； 加上獨立的照明和空調，

but those were pretty much all solved problems for elevators by 1939.

但到 1939 年，這些電梯問題幾乎全部得到解決。

If you're running one cable for lighting, it's not much more effort to add a few more to power some fans and provide telephone lines.

如果您使用一根電纜用於照明，那麼添加更多電纜來為一些風扇供電和提供電話線並不需要花費太多精力。

But the bit that surprised me was the sink.

但最讓我吃驚的是水槽，

How is there hot and cold running water and a drain in a moving elevator?

在移動的電梯裡怎麼會有冷熱自來水和下水道呢？

When I first heard about this, I thought there'd be a sink installed on each floor and it would just line up.

當我第一次聽說這個時，我以為每層樓都會安裝一個水槽，而且它會排成一排。

But no, this moves with the elevator.

但是沒有，這個是隨著電梯移動的。

And then I thought maybe there was some incredibly clever plumbing like in that rotating house I visited a while ago,

然後我想也許有一些非常聰明的管道就像我不久前參觀的那個旋轉房子一樣，

but actually there's just a water tank above and a wastewater tank below and every so often maintenance would fill that one and empty that one because sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

但實際上只有上面一個水箱和下面一個廢水箱，每隔一段時間維護就會填充一個水箱並清空另一個水箱，因為有時最簡單的解決方案是最好的。

These days, it's kept dry.

這些天它一直保持乾燥。

Now, there is a story that the boss would use this elevator to always keep a watch on employees, appearing at any time, staring from his chair out of the door, but the guides here say that's a myth.

現在，有一種說法是，老闆會利用這部電梯隨時監視從他的椅子上盯著門外出現的員工。

And it doesn't make sense anyway. Because each floor of this building is 80 meters by 20 meters, and this is a corner office with fairly narrow doors.

但這裡的導遊說，這只是個傳說，而且無論如何也說不通，因為這座建築的每一層都是 80 米乘 20 米，這是一間角落辦公室，門相當窄。

There just aren't the sight lines to make that possible.

只是沒有足夠的視線來實現這一點。

And besides, there's a big light up indicator outside that tells you what floor the office is currently sitting on.

此外，外面還有一個巨大的指示燈，告訴你辦公室目前所在的樓層。

It's not recorded whether employees would ever just push the button to call the office to their floor as a prank.

至於員工是否會惡作劇地按下按鈕，把辦公室的人叫到自己的樓層，目前還沒有記錄。

I really hope that happens sometimes.

我真的很希望這樣。

I couldn't tell you for sure why this was built.

有時候，我也說不清楚為什麼要建這個。

It's probably efficiency.

可能是效率問題。

It is quite a long walk to the main public elevators, plus it's much more private rather than the boss riding along with everyone else.

到主公共電梯要走很長一段路，而且這比老闆和其他人一起乘坐電梯要私密得多。

And besides: Jan Antonín Baťa never actually got to use this.

此外，揚-安東尼-貝爾從未真正使用過這座建築，

Because the building was completed in 1939, by which point Europe was at war, and Jan Antonín had left the continent with his family.

因為該建築於 1939 年竣工，當時歐洲正處於戰爭狀態，揚·安東尼已與家人離開了歐洲大陸。

The history of him, and the fates of the various international branches of the company after that are... complicated.

他的歷史，以及此後公司各個國際分支機構的命運……都很複雜。

Complicated enough that you could probably get a whole PhD trying to understand it.

複雜到你可能需要花一個完整的博士學位來試圖理解它。

After the war, he was declared a traitor, and he died in exile in Brazil in 1965.

戰後，他被宣佈為叛徒，並於 1965 年在巴西流亡途中去世。

But in 2007, the conviction was officially overturned, and in 2019, he was given Czechia's highest honor for services to the country, and there's a statue of him in the park just over the road.

但 2007 年，這項定罪被正式推翻。2019 年，他因對國家的貢獻而獲得了歡呼的最高榮譽。 路那邊的公園裡有他的雕像。

History is complicated, particularly Second World War history in central Europe, and particularly when I just came here to make a video about an interesting elevator.

歷史是複雜的，尤其是中歐的第二次世界大戰歷史。尤其是當我來這裡是為了製作一個關於有趣的電梯的影片時。

This building is now the main government office for this whole region and the local tourist attraction.

這座建築現在是整個地區的主要政府辦公場所，也是當地的旅遊景點。

And every so often, someone still stops by to service the elevator.

每隔一段時間，還會有人來維修電梯。