Today I visited the White House. I noticed a very tempting button on the fence behind the back lawn (the standard viewing position, exactly in the center) and decided that it was too irresistible to not push. You can find a picture here:
After I pushed the button I thought the security guards behind me might yell at me or secret service might jump out of the bushes and tackle me, or, in my wildest dreams, Obama would step out and wave. But nothing happened.
Not shown is that there is tubing that would appear to house an electrical cable that juts straight out the bottom of the button box. It curves near the ground and heads straight to the right for a couple of feet before disappearing underground.
I googled a bit and found a few more pics of it but no definitive answer as to what pushing the button accomplishes (also, this was the only photographic evidence of someone pushing it ;-).
So, what does pushing the button do? (nothing, obviously) Why is it there? What was its intended function? How old is it? etc.
It’s a long-running sociological experiment installed by Gerald Ford (or, at least, during his term in office). Its sole purpose is to count the number of times the button is pushed daily, and to compare the results over weeks, months, and years. What, exactly, the executive branch hopes to gain from this information has never been clear. Link.
My guess: when you press it, a prerecorded welcome message / historical description is heard through a tinny loudspeaker located just behind the button. Except when it’s broken, in which case it becomes a metaphor for the decline of the empire, government shutdowns, etc.
Realistically, it may be a relic of a time when the White House didn’t have a 24-hour guard gate and a visitor might have needed a doorbell to summon someone to open the gate.
