California is strengthening its efforts to crack down on unlicensed contractors and various other illegal home improvement operators. They have been taking business away from law-abiding contractors, builders, remodelers, and various related providers in the residential marketplace.

Now, we can only present the following in regard to the State of California, but all who are reading should take this to heart, as this issue is probably the case in the rest of the country. States are realizing that not only illegal contractors are a threat to the homeowner and their neighbors' quality of life, but are driving an "underground" economy (estimated between 60 to 140 billion dollars) that is depriving them of much needed fee and tax revenue.

The oldest operating elevators in the U.S. are direct plunger elevators. They are located at 34 Gramercy Park, in New York City's earliest cooperative apartment house. The elevators were installed by Otis Elevator back in 1883 and still retain most of the original equipment first used in the nine-story building. A cable runs through the top of the cab and out the bottom and controls a valve in the basement that regulates the flow between the underground cylinder and a water tower at the top of the building.