One of my absolute favorite things to do as a little kid was run through the big revolving doors in places like New York City and when we would go to fancy restaurants. It was super entertaining for kids and not so much for the adults supervising and those going through the doors at the same time. But, revolving doors weren’t made just to entertain children, though.
Yes believe it or now an inventor by the name of Theophilus Van Kannel concocted the first revolving door way back in 1888. It was a great idea, since it kept cool air inside buildings and lowered air pressure, which reduced energy costs. That wasn’t the reason he built it, though; if there was one thing that irritated the heck out of Van Kannel, it was walking up to a door in public at the same time as someone else and getting into a stare down over who should open it. It’s a gripe many people still have today, but Van Kannel was the one who actually did something about it.
Of course, as I mentioned before, even if there’s a revolving door present, most folk will still use the regular door since it’s what they’re used to. That’s the tough thing about coming up with a good idea; it needs to be so good that it triumphs over peoples’ laziness…but most people look at it and never even knew why it was created. Share this story to help a friend out!
