<P> Building codes have regulated the construction and operation of dumbwaiters in parts of North America since the 19th century . Modern dumbwaiters in the United States and Canada must comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) codes and, therefore, have features similar to those of passenger elevators . The construction, operation and usage of dumbwaiters varies widely according to country . </P> <P> After defecting from the Soviet underground in 1938, Whittaker Chambers gave a last stash of stolen documents to his nephew - in - law, Nathan Levine, who hid them in a dumbwaiter on his mother's house in Brooklyn . A decade later, Chambers asked his nephew to retrieve them (which Chambers referred to as his "life preserver"). Handwritten and typewritten papers therein came from Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White (and became known as the "Baltimore Documents"). Microfilm contained therein was subpoenaed and sensationalized (misnamed the "Pumpkin Papers" in the press) by Richard M Nixon for HUAC . </P> <P> Harold Pinter wrote a play in 1960 called The Dumb Waiter, in which a dumbwaiter forms a key element . </P> <P> In the 2005 movie Zathura: A Space Adventure, Danny uses his home's dumbwaiter to hide from his brother, and later to move around the house without being seen by the Zorgons . </P>

Where does the term dumb waiter come from