We asked Gina Barney to take a look back into her library and choose something from the archives of interest to our readers today

“In September 1989 I became aware of a four-volume commentary entitled Handbook and comments on EN81/Part 1 Safety Code with some reference to other leading Codes by Andre Leenders of Nice, France. After some correspondence Andre sent me a copy.

The material is an authoritative source of the rationale behind BS5655-1:1986/EN81-1:1985. It documents the reasons how some clauses in the standard were arrived at. The author sometimes did not agree and called his view “controversial”.

The material was not copyrighted and I queried this and Andre replied: “As a rule, I authorise anybody to make copies of my book which is not protected by any ‘Copyright’ because I did not write it for profit. You might consequently quote a part of my book if you wish.” Thirty-three years later I am taking up the offer for Lift Industry News.”