The Ballad of Carl Prinzler

19 08, 2013

The Ballad of Carl Prinzler

By |2017-02-15T21:29:09-05:00August 19th, 2013|Panic Hardware|7 Comments

Do you know who Carl Prinzler was?  Does the name ring a bell?  Carl worked in the door hardware industry back in the early 20th century, and was instrumental in developing the first exit device along with his employer, Vonnegut Hardware Company and his neighbor, Henry DuPont.  Recently Peter Wilson of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies came across a poem by Misha Burnett called The Ballad of Carl Prinzler, and sent me the link.  I couldn't imagine who (besides me) would write a poem about Carl Prinzler, so I emailed Misha.  He is a university locksmith and while taking a poetry class he also attended a Von Duprin training class and learned about the invention of the first panic hardware after the tragic fire at the Iroquois Theater, which inspired him to write the Ballad of Carl Prinzler.

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15 08, 2013

La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel

By |2013-09-01T09:04:31-04:00August 15th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|2 Comments

For some of you, this story will confirm my nerdiness.  I'm ok with that.  My trip to San Miguel de Allende is almost over - we're flying home on Saturday.  I have hundreds of door photos to sort through, and I will post some in the coming weeks.  But there was one pair of doors that I had not been able to photograph properly - the doors of La Parroquia, the beautiful church on the south side of el Jardin, which is the garden at the heart of San Miguel.  I have visited the church MANY times during my stay, at all times of the day and night, hoping to find the doors closed.  I've asked several people what time the doors open in the morning, but so far, no luck.  I couldn't go home without photographing the doors of the unofficial symbol of SMA, right?

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2 08, 2013

Impact of Citizen Involvement

By |2017-09-29T13:37:42-04:00August 2nd, 2013|FDAI, Fire Doors, News|0 Comments

I love it when people take action to rectify a code issue - especially when it's a door problem.  Two articles landed on my desk in the last few days about just that - citizens who saw a deficiency and didn't let it drop until it got some attention.  Both stories are from the UK and both involve high-rise apartment buildings - maybe Theodore Firedoor is helping to educate people about code-compliant fire doors. 

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25 07, 2013

LCN Closers in the News!

By |2013-07-25T02:14:56-04:00July 25th, 2013|Door Closers|5 Comments

At the risk of sounding like a hardware nerd, I'll admit that I think door closers are really cool.  Most of the people walking around in the world don't give them a second thought.  But on Monday, July 29th, between 9:35 and 9:45 pm EDT, LCN Closers will be profiled on The Fox Business Network in the "Manufacturing Marvels" series.  The two-minute profile will spotlight the LCN brand, its products and its commitment to quality, and hopefully make more people aware of what an important purpose door closers serve.

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12 07, 2013

WWYD? – Folding Partition Closet

By |2013-07-29T14:38:46-04:00July 12th, 2013|Sliding and Folding Doors, WWYD?|4 Comments

I have specified hardware for this application several times in the past, but when it came up again today I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some feedback from all of you and come up with the best way to handle this type of opening.  It's a storage closet for a large folding partition to divide a room.  When the folding partition is stored in the closet, both leaves of the door are in the same plane to fill the opening.  When the folding partition is out of storage and dividing the room, it still extends into the closet so the small leaf of the pair folds back against the larger leaf, to leave space for the folding partition.

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5 07, 2013

Science Lab Doors

By |2017-10-26T12:51:37-04:00July 5th, 2013|Fire Doors, Means of Egress|5 Comments

Several questions have come up lately regarding the door and hardware requirements for science labs in schools.  When a short article about a chemical fire in a lab storage cabinet came across my desk, I decided to do a little digging.  I found that fires in school science labs are not uncommon, in fact, the number of injuries to students has grown - in part because of changing educational requirements which advocate more hands-on science instruction.  In the event of a lab fire, building code requirements can help to limit the damage to the lab and prevent the fire and smoke from spreading.

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2 07, 2013

WWYD: Help Wanted

By |2017-10-26T12:51:43-04:00July 2nd, 2013|Door Closers, Fire Doors, Hinges & Pivots, Means of Egress, WWYD?|18 Comments

I answer A LOT of questions every day, and I love doing it.  I'm so glad to be able to provide this resource for our staff and customers, and anyone else who comes across my site.  But sometimes I get questions that I don't have a good answer for, and that's where you come in.  Please leave a comment if you have any insight on ANY of these questions...

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28 06, 2013

Colorado Convention Center

By |2013-07-10T15:31:51-04:00June 28th, 2013|Beautiful Doors|0 Comments

I've had dozens of architects ask me to specify hardware for doors with something "unusual" applied to them...sheetrock, wood, stone...one of our hardware consultants even had an architect propose full-sized brick covering the entire face of the door.  I always try to talk them out of it, but I have to admit it's pretty cool when I see doors where the architect didn't take "no" for an answer.

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27 06, 2013

Big and Beautiful Denver Door

By |2013-07-10T15:31:15-04:00June 27th, 2013|Beautiful Doors|5 Comments

It's been a busy couple of weeks that didn't leave me a lot of time for blogging - last week I went to LCN to have dinner with some of my favorite customers from Israel, witnessed a fire test at UL, then spent the rest of the week at the AIA conference in Denver where I played Code Jeopardy with the Denver chapter of DHI, played a mini version with LOTS of AIA attendees, and taught a class at the conference with Bill Lawliss.  We're spending this week with our new group of specwriter apprentices, as well as the previous group - they have already learned enough to help us with the instructing!  I have been amazed at how quickly they picked up the product information, code requirements, and specification techniques.  Here's a group photo from our field trip to Harvard yesterday:

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20 06, 2013

Beautiful Doors of Denver

By |2013-07-10T15:32:05-04:00June 20th, 2013|Accessibility, Beautiful Doors, Fire Doors, Means of Egress|3 Comments

I'm in Denver for the AIA conference, and this afternoon I played a rousing game of Code Jeopardy with the Denver Chapter of DHI.  If you're at the AIA conference this week, stop at our booth (#530) to play a short version of Code Jeopardy and your name will be entered to win an iPad Mini!  You can enter whether you get the questions right or not, and you'll probably learn something about a new code requirement in the process.

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19 06, 2013

WW: Are the kids to blame?

By |2014-08-22T22:56:18-04:00June 19th, 2013|Glass, Wordless Wednesday|14 Comments

Last Friday I posted an article about a school district settlement with a student, after a severe injury due to impact with traditional wired glass.  The article mentioned that a "15-year-old high school student fell while climbing atop a stack of rolled up wrestling mats."  What the article didn't say was that the mats had been rolled up between practices, and the student was helping to set up - the mats were stuck together and he climbed up to help free the mat and slipped, impacting the glass.  His injury was horrific, and he's lucky to be alive.

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14 06, 2013

School District Settles for $2 Million and Apologizes

By |2013-06-19T01:25:34-04:00June 14th, 2013|Glass, News|11 Comments

I've gotten in the habit of looking at wired glass to see if it has a certification mark for impact-resistance.  Almost none of the existing wired glass that I've seen has the mark, which means that unless it has field-applied film (I haven't spotted any film yet), it is extremely hazardous.  When I see kids running down the school corridors or swarming the exit at the end of the school day, I worry about impact with the glass, and the resulting injuries.  Our kids are supposed to be safe at school, but the majority of schools have traditional wired glass in place.  And if administrators think they are protected from liability, a precedent is being set that indicates otherwise...

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10 06, 2013

The Clock is Ticking

By |2017-12-07T22:57:14-05:00June 10th, 2013|Glass|0 Comments

Last month I posted an article by Kenneth T. Lumb about the liability that schools carry with regard to non-impact-resistant wired glass.  I received a comment from former Oregon State Senator Vicki Walker, who has been an instrumental and passionate force in removing traditional wired glass from Oregon schools.  With her permission, I have posted her comment below (or click here to download a PDF version). 

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22 05, 2013

Tornado Safety in Schools

By |2017-07-28T09:52:59-04:00May 22nd, 2013|News, Windstorm|2 Comments

When tragedy strikes, a common reaction is to examine what went wrong...what could have been done to affect a better outcome?  In many cases throughout history, codes were changed because of tragic events.  For the door and hardware industry, fires at the Iroquios Theater, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, Our Lady of Angels School, and the Station Nightclub come to mind as catalysts for code change.

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6 05, 2013

Boston Strong

By |2013-06-02T19:27:52-04:00May 6th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Doors Gone Wrong, Road Trips|10 Comments

Last month I wrote about my experience on the day of this year's Boston Marathon.  The slogan "Boston Strong" has emerged since then as the ultimate description of this city, which will not let senseless violence beat us down.  This weekend my friend and I took our kids downtown, and our first stop was the makeshift memorial that has sprung up next to Trinity Church and across the street from the Boston Public Library.  I was surprised at the very long line of people inching through the display of running shoes, flowers, notes, candles, hats, stuffed animals, and other mementos that have been left at the site, and also the multiple news vehicles parked along the street.  I'm still wondering what story they're waiting to capture...survivors visiting the memorial?  Famous people?  I guess I'll have to watch the news and see.

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30 04, 2013

Shelter from the Storm

By |2015-04-01T21:41:20-04:00April 30th, 2013|Windstorm|2 Comments

Thankfully, we don't experience many tornadoes here in the Northeast - I actually only remember one tornado scare in my lifetime - on June 1st, 2011.  The weatherman was telling the residents of the towns in the tornado's path when to go into the basement and when the danger had passed.  I was grateful that we had a basement to go to, that my family was all here together, and that ultimately the tornado didn't make it as far as our town.  But what if we didn't have a relatively safe place to go - especially in an area where tornadoes are more common?  When I think about our elementary school, I have no idea where the safest location would be...I wonder if the school staff knows?

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