The oldest “modern” lifts were manually controlled by an operator or lift boy who was always present in the car. People waiting on the various floors would press a button that sounded an acoustic signal in the cabin, and a sign would show from which storey the lift had been called. The operator could decide whether to take the people already in the car straight to their destinations or to stop on the way to allow further passengers to board the lift. The precision of levelling the car at the landings also depended on the lift boy’s skills. Operators of this kind became redundant once the response to calls and the stopping mechanism of lifts were automatically con-trolled. Passengers could select their destinations themselves by pressing the appropriate floor button within the car. Calls from the various storeys were made in the same way as before, but now the lift would respond automatically. As long as a car was not free to take calls, an “occupied” sign would be illumi-nated, and the lift could not be stopped from the outside. This was convenient for passengers inside the car, but it was not very satisfactory for those waiting on the various floors.