Hey Cecil,
Good job you are doing. however, you have the bit about how the revolving doors came into being inaccurate.
ETA: Column link - What’s the purpose of revolving doors? - The Straight Dope - Rico
How so? Care to enlighten us?
Well you should know what he did wrong, I shouldn’t have to tell you. I’ll be at my mother’s until you call and apologize.
I read somewhere (don’t ask me where) that Thomas Edison (maybe it was Benjamin Franklin) had the revolving door at his residence connected to a pump that filled the holding tank in ceiling so in 'd have running water.
A modern day application would be to connect it to a generator.
they actually came into being at hotels in England so that the brit snobs don’t have to take out their hands out of their coat pockets when trying to open the door when its very cold outside. then the idea was quickly copied by one german dude who thought that the system would even help maintaining the temprature difference between outside and inside. now that is a myth. its not possible. I’m an architect and i know this. because essentially, the doors in succession would bring in a fresh air pocket from the outside only to deliver it inside in transition. and then pick up the inside air pocket and throw it outside when the doors once again the come towards the outside. it might momentarily achieve in maintaining the difference if there is not much foot fall or not much human traffic. but if lot of people are getting in and out, then this system, apart from facilitating the inflow and out flow, does not do much in screening the inside from outside. and in actuality, the reason why this doors is not advised is, if its a free revolving door, the one strong push from an out going soccer midfielder, would result in a strong push to an incoming 90 year old grandma who walks with a walking support. but that couldn’t really have much of an impact since the grandma’s teeth are already missing.
and these doors take up huge amount of spaces. then there are other constraints. what if this door is in a hotel and a hugh hefner is banging the daylights of a playmate and suffers a stroke. getting the stretcher in and out would be a major problem. and we wouldn’t really want that to happen as we love playboy. there are a lot of things which i can go on discussing about the revolving doors, but to be honest, i think i want to get my hands on the july issue of playboy at the moment. and then typing with one hand can be troublesome.
But i hope i am living upto cecil’s motto…“Fighting Ignorance”.
cheers
hey, OP dude, unless you have a good cite, i think you’re making shit up.
While I agree that Cecil’s column is a little light on facts, he does not discuss how they “came into being”, so I’m not sure as to point of the OP.
Without a cite, this explanation is worthless, besides there are multiple cites that do not support this claim.
Architecture very rarely involves thermal and fluid dynamics and the design of an HVAC system, these details generally left to the engineers.
Revolving doors maintain temperature by not allowing doors to be held open during busy periods in contrast to single doors or a vestibule where both sets may be held open for long periods.
They also help maintain the air pressure differential between inside and out as well as air balancing within the building.
Regular doors are influenced by this differential, either making them harder to open (negative) or holding them open (positive).
Revolving doors are never the only means of ingress/egress to a building, but are usually the largest and suggested means of entry. There are regular doors that can be used for accessibility, deliveries, emergencies, etc…
Most importantly, they are certainly not to be used as emergency doors or fire exits. (see Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942)
and we wouldn’t really want that to happen as we love playboy. there are a lot of things which i can go on discussing about the revolving doors, but to be honest, i think i want to get my hands on the july issue of playboy at the moment. and then typing with one hand can be troublesome.
But i hope i am living upto cecil’s motto…“Fighting Ignorance”.
cheers
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… err, thanks.
Are you sure? It seems to me that an architect would need to have at least a good grounding in thermal dynamics in order to design buildings with some semblance of energy efficiency.
Powers &8^]
Yes, they do need to have some understanding of basic principles but in most cases, the architect designs a building, then the engineers are employed to redesign it to work. 
If you want to doubt something, I would doubt the OP’s claim of actually being an architect.
Well, I learned something today! Architects do not use paragraphs or capital letters.
Well, I’m not going in any building designed with a t-square.
He capitalized England though.
My guess? That style was probably started by the british snobs then quickly copied by that one german dude.
don’t snob hotels in England have doormen?
don’t snobs in England have gloves or mittens?
it is to power the dessert carousel at the lunch counter.
The builder often has to add those later. It’s a frequent source of cost overruns.