A paternoster is a continuously running elevator in which you nimbly deftly step into the cabin as it scrolls by. Or you die trying. As of the year 2002, paternosters killed on average one person per year in Germany – even though there was an installed base of around 200 of them. The number of gruesome injuries was not recorded.
Most of them have been decommissioned due to safety reasons, but a few are still in use, such as this one in the Stuttgart Rathaus:
