I’ve received lots of reader photos lately…thank you, and keep ’em coming!

From Kurt Roeper of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, taken on his recent trip to China.  In the facility’s defense, iDigHardware seems to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China, so it’s no wonder they have hardware problems.  The first photo is of a hospital entrance…the floor closers are broken so the green blankets will have to do until the doors become functional again.  The second photo is a cross-corridor pair in a hospital which requires 3 motions to exit.

From Nolan Thrope of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, an old cast iron Von Duprin rim device.  According to “The Builders Hardware Industry – A United States History, 1830′s to 1990′s,” the only cast iron device ever made by Von Duprin was the Liberty, which was manufactured during WWI.  The  name Liberty was used instead of Von Duprin to avoid the anti-German sentiment, even though the name Von Duprin didn’t come from Germany.  These devices were manufactured starting in 1914, so this is an oldie!

From René Bouchard of Smoot Associates, a fusible link dogging device:

From Jim White of DoorNorth and Millwork Specialties, Inc., a follow-up to his collection of cruise ship photos…here’s Jim’s note:

“On my last cruise I was able to speak with a senior engineering officer about the funny little doors.  He confirmed what the maintenance crew person told me before.  The little door in the bottom corner of the lock side of the full door is to allow for a fire hose to be taken into the area to fight the fire while allowing the larger door to be closed.  This way it restricts to the amount of oxygen to the fire by compartmentalizing the area.  I asked if that was dangerous for the firefighter and was told that this method extinguishes the fire very quickly so there is no more danger than usual.  He explained that all of the doors below and a few above the waterline are watertight doors.  Because fire is more a concern above the waterline almost all of the doors are fire doors and all the cross-corridor and major room entries have the little fire hose door.  They truly believe in compartmentalization for both water and fire.   Even though the ship is completely sprinklered, they take no chances and have lots of redundancy.”

Jim also sent along a couple of photos of panic hardware on the ship, which is apparently not a common application for a cruise ship:

From Scott Barringer of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, a “delayed exit” lock on a pair of exterior doors (the delay is variable depending on how long it takes you to figure out why the door won’t open), and a door that has seen better days and a LOT of Bondo:

I have even more reader photos to post tomorrow, so check back!  Thanks everyone!

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