You Will Never Guess How Revolving Doors Became A Thing

How the revolving door came to be

The creator of the revolving door had a weird idea that just happened to work. An American inventor by the name of Theophilus Van Kannel decided to invent the revolving door because he really hated one specific thing, walking through a door with other people and having the “no you first” debate.

He found it annoying trying to figure out who should open the door while with other pedestrians. Van Kannel liked to be polite but found this minute problem annoying to go through on a daily basis so he went to the drawing board to find a solution to this ongoing issue.

In 1888 he filed the patent for his invention of the revolving door which was called “storm door structure” at the time and featured weather strips to avoid loss of energy. The first revolving door was installed in the Rector’s restaurant in Times Square the following year of filing the patent.

They might seem like an odd option for a door but they help solve a handful of problems in pubic infrastructures including controlling temperature and air pressure, ultimately saving 30% energy costs for the building. They also exchange eight times less air than normal doors to help building maintain their temperature, according to an MIT study.

The same study shows that only 20-30% of people use revolving doors and opt to use normal doors instead. Another poll shows revolving doors can also cause problems with what people think is proper etiquette, with 50% saying that they should let a woman go first through the door as a courtesy gesture.

What do you think about the revolving door? Check out the video above for more.