THE elevator from hell was back in service yesterday at the McGraw-Hill Building, and it operated smoothly during an unscientific survey. How much, passengers were asked during a dozen trips at lunchtime, should Nicholas White get for being trapped in this box for 40 hours without food or water?

The answers ranged from $30,000 to $12 million, with the most common figure being $2 million. That works out to $50,000 an hour, which is probably more than Mr. White was making as production manager at Business Week when he went out for a cigarette that fateful weekend.

But it seems a pittance to serious claustrophobes. A million dollars an hour would not be enough for us. Although Mr. White has refrained from describing his ordeal publicly -- he still hasn't gone back to work -- it's clear from other sources that he endured the claustrophobe's ultimate New York nightmare.

Mr. White was working late on Friday, Oct. 15, when he stepped out for a cigarette shortly after 11 P.M. He went back into the building, which is on the Avenue of the Americas at 49th Street, and got into an express elevator headed for his office on the 43d floor.