Lift man

A buzz went round yesterday - the new Iraqi Prime-Minister-in-waiting used to mind the lifts at Bush House, when it was the home of the BBC World Service.

Sort of right - Haider al-Abadi's company mended the lifts at Bush, which underwent a major lift replacement programme in 1983.

He was in exile from Iraq from 1976 to 2003, starting with an MSc in Electrical Engineering at Manchester University. He got his PhD in 1980, for work on "Disc and Linear Forms of Electronically Controlled Permanent-Magnet Machines" and their application to the lift industry.

In 1981 Dr. Al-Abadi joined LDP Engineering Ltd as a development engineer and carried out research on rope-less transportation systems as well as "development, design and installation work for a major lift modernisation, design and build contract", according to his CV. This looks like the start of the BBC project at Bush - it had been in gestation for some years, as it required Foreign Office approval for the capital spend, and these things never moved fast.

Work began in 1983 - each lift was fitted with two new control panels, one at waist height for wheelchair users, and behind the scenes was the good doctor's "optimisation programme", written for Windows, monitoring the pressing of call buttons and trying to deliver each car to the right floor for the fastest service. In the lobbies there were, from memory, daft countdown displays. for itchy producers anxious to get to studios.


By 1993 he'd set up his own company, Relevet Limited, which operated out of offices set aside by World Service in the North West wing of Bush. His inventive mind was still at work - in 2001, he patented Synchro Rail. I may be wrong, but it looks like it works a bit like a lift on its side.