dumbwaiter

Yasuo Uchidaの "The Togakushi Legend Murders" を読んでいます。
"Wait a minute, though," said Takemura, inclining his head. "If you use this cart for room service, how do you get it up here? You'd have an awful time getting it up the stairs, like a portable shrine, wouldn't you?”
'"Oh, there's no problem there. We have a dumbwaiter to bring the cart up, meal and all, from the kitchen.”
"Oh, you do? Well, that’s a relief. That means you can bring it up still aboil. Well, it sure does look delicious."

"dumbwaiter" は食事を下の階から上に運ぶ装置を指しているに違いありません。辞書の説明を見ます。
 
・Oxford English Dictionary: A dumbwaiter is an elevator used to carry food and dishes from one floor of a building to another.: A dumbwaiter was installed to move book-carts between floors.
・Merriam-Webster: a small elevator used for conveying food and dishes from one story of a building to another: The food was homemade, cakes and pies on the third floor, Salisbury steak dinners on the second, all lowered by dumbwaiter to a round floor packed with diners.
・Dictionary.com:a small elevator, manually or electrically operated, consisting typically of a box with shelves, used in apartment houses, restaurants, and large private dwellings for moving dishes, food, garbage, etc., between floors.

3/18/2011 に取り上げた "Lazy Susan" を思い出しました。