What explanations did we hear for closing one of the leaves? Here are the most plausible:
1. Saves energy costs. By opening only one side, stores can retain heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. True, but the savings are minimal, indeed. An individual will not open both sides at once. If a group of people, leaving and/or entering, can’t open both leaves at once, they will keep one open much longer than if they were using both to make their transition. Approximately the same amount of heat/air conditioning would be lost.
2. The wind can kick up when both leaves are open. Again, not untrue. A good architect can assure that doors will not buckle with gusts, but wind problems are one of the reasons why double doors are often supplied with deadbolts for one leaf. Vestibules also absorb most of the wind tunnel effect that occasionally occurs.
3. Prevents shoplifting. Several store managers claimed that this was the main purpose for locking one leaf. But Jack Schultz, of the National Retail Federation, claimed that this argument is ridiculous on its face. The thief has already entered the store—he or she knows full well which door (s) will be open on the way out.
4. Crowd control/traffic flow. You must be kidding. Closing leaves causes congestion at the doorways. Control? Maybe. Flow? No. (Besides, we’ve seen leaves locked in many stores and office buildings without any security or crowd control efforts whatsoever.)
5. Astragals. Between 10 and 20 percent of the double doors installed include astragals: metal, rubber, or felt material that covers the gap between the two leaves of the double door. Astragals help keep the elements, notably dirt, smoke, wind, and precipitation, from entering the store, and help preserve conditioned air inside. Astragals also keep potential criminals from sticking a coat hanger or other wedge in between the doors to force entry.
Obviously, a metal astragal is a far more effective deterrent to thieves than softer materials, but it makes life more difficult for the shopkeeper. According to architect David B. Eagan, of Eagan Associates, the astragal is usually placed on the active door. Why? The door with the astragal has to close last so that the two leaves will close appropriately. (If the leaf with the astragal is closed first, the other leaf won’t close all the way.)
If both doors are activated, “coordinating hardware,” usually placed at the top of the door, is necessary to make the leaves close harmoniously. But coordinating hardware is very expensive. The path of least resistance (and least strain on the pocketbook) is to lock one leaf and activate the second leaf only when necessary.
While we are always ready to accept any explanation that hinges on saving money or hard work, most stores don’t have doors with metal astragals (soft astragals don’t require expensive coordinating hardware or one particular leaf to be designated as the active one), so theory number 5 can’t explain this universal condition.
Still, we argue that laziness is the dominant motivator in The Case of the Locked Doorleaf. It is easier for store employees to contend with one door than two. Rose Smouse, executive assistant of the National Retail Federation, concurs:
There is no standard as to why this second double door is locked. It is, best as we can tell, pure convenience. This second door usually has [flush-bolt] locks that go into the top part of the doorjamb and another one that goes into the floor. Some doors have special locks that open them. These second doors are not convenient or easy to open and, therefore, remain locked.
A few off-the-record remarks from store managers and their underlings indicated that the laziness theory has much to commend it.
Judging from our mailbag, most folks wish door policies were more convenient for them, rather than the storekeepers. National Retail Federation’s Jack Schultz, who once operated-department store giant Bloomingdale’s, calls closing any of the doors to a retail establishment “the most customer-insulting activity a retail establishment can engage in.”
May we include one more, not insignificant point? Closing one leaf may be illegal. Local fire codes ordain the width required of any “means of egress” from an establishment open to the public. If an exit must be six feet wide, can it be counted at that width if one of the two leaves is closed, and the doorway is effectively only three feet wide?
We spoke to Bruce W. Hisley, program chair of the Fire Prevention Technical Program Series at the National Fire Academy, who informed us that although there is no single national standard for such matters, virtually all localities require that doors identified as exits must be open when the building is occupied. The question remains: Does that mean both leaves of the door or only one?
In practice, many stores meet fire codes by installing double doors that the fire department assumes will stay open during business hours. They are committing a code violation by closing one leaf. But until localities hire many more inspectors, we’ll all have to play the “guess which door” game a little longer.
Submitted by Paul Dunn of Morton, Illinois. Thanks also to Douglas Watkins, Jr., of Hayward, California; Jean Harmon of Silver Spring, Maryland; John V. Dixon of Wilmette, Illinois; Thomas Schoeck of Slingerlands, New York; Nancy Stairs of Revelstoke, British Columbia; Frank P. Burger of Nashville, Tennessee; Nelson T. Sparks of Louisa, Kentucky; and Ralph Kaden of New Haven, Connecticut.
In large enclosed shopping malls, why is the last door on both sides of the main entrance often closed?
The answer once again is, of course, laziness. Mark Weitzman posed this Imponderable in 1987, and ever since we’ve sought the solution, we have met with obfuscation worthy of politicians and beauty pageant contestants.
Fire codes mandate wide exits for malls. We’ve seen many with eight sets of double doors side by side. Barring an emergency, the main entrance/exit is rarely congested. Too often, security personnel at malls find it more convenient to not unlock some doors (usually the doors on the far left and right), so as not to have to lock them up again later. Some mall employees have tried to convince us that outer doors are closed to conserve energy or for security reasons, but the explanations ring hollow for the same reasons as they did in the last entry.
Our friend at the National Fire Academy, Bruce Hisley, told Imponderables that when he was a fire marshall, he often found that all but one set of a local mall’s doors were locked shortly before closing time, in clear violation of fire codes. A little investigation yielded the discovery that this was the employees’ less than subtle method of deterring customers from going into the mall at the last minute. Anyone who has ever entered a restaurant five minutes before the stated closing time and received less than stellar service will comprehend the operative mentality.
Submitted by Mark Weitzman of Boulder, Colorado.
Why are there two red stripes around the thinnest part of bowling pins?
Their sole purpose, according to Al Vanderneck, of the American Bowling Congress, is to look pretty. Part of Vanderneck’s job is to check the specifications of bowling equipment, and he reports that without the stripes, the pins “just look funny.” The area where the stripes are placed is known as the “neck,” and evidently a naked neck on a bowling pin stands out as much as a tieless neck on a tuxedo wearer.
Actually, we almost blew the answer to this Imponderable. We’ve thrown a few turkeys in our time, and we always identified the red stripes with AMF pins; the other major manufacturer of bowling pins, Brunswick, used a red crown as an identification mark on its pins. So we assumed that the red stripes were a trademark of AMF’s.
AMF’s product manager Ron Pominville quickly disabused us of our theory. Brunswick’s pins have always had stripes, too, and Brunswick has eliminated the red crown in their current line of pins. A third and growing presence in pindom, Vulcan, also includes stripes on their products.
We haven’t been able to confirm two items: Who started the practice of striping the necks of bowling pins? And exactly what is so aesthetically pleasing about these two thin strips of crimson applied to battered, ivory-colored pins?
Submitted by Michael Alden of Rochester Hi
lls, Michigan. Thanks also to Ken Shafer of Traverse City, Michigan.
Does catnip “work” on big cats like lions and tigers?
Catnip (or Nepeta cataria, as scientists so eloquently call it) is a perennial herb that drives many house cats wild with delight. It was probably first noticed as an attractant when big cats swarmed around withered or bruised plants growing in the wild.
A full response to catnip involves four separate actions, usually in this order:
1. Sniffing
2. Licking and chewing with head shaking
3. Chin and cheek rubbing
4. Head-over rolling and body rubbing
The full cycle usually lasts under fifteen minutes. Some cats will also vocalize after the head-over rolling, presumably a response to hallucinations. Although the cats exposed to catnip mimic their behavior when in heat, catnip does not increase sexual interest or activity and doesn’t seem to affect cats in heat more perceptibly.
Scientists know quite a bit about how domestic cats react to catnip. Most cats do not begin responding to the plant until they are six to eight weeks of age, and some may not respond until they are three months of age. All of the research provided by the Cornell Feline Health Center indicates that cats’ reaction to catnip is independent of sex or neutering status. Susceptibility is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait—about a third of domestic cats have no reaction to catnip.
Two-legged mammals have not been immune to the charms of catnip. Veterinarian Jeff Grognet cites the historical use of catnip by humans; the versatile herb was used to make tea, juice, tincture, poultice, and infusions. Catnip was also smoked and chewed for its reputed therapeutic, hallucinogenic, or euphoria-inducing properties.
Scientists, like our reader, have also been curious about the effect of catnip on other cats, and other types of animals. In the largest study of catnip’s effect on a wide range of animals, Dr. N. B. Todd’s conclusion was clear: Although a few individual animals of almost every type reacted in some way to catnip, cats responded most often and most intensely.
Out of sixteen lions tested, fourteen had full household cat-type responses. Almost half of twenty-three tigers tested had no response at all, but many had incomplete responses: Some sniffed; fewer licked; only a couple chin-rubbed; and none exhibited head-over rolling. But young tigers had violently strong reactions to catnip. Most leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards had strong, full-cycle reactions to catnip. We know that bobcats and lynx love catnip, for the herb is sold commercially to lure these cats for trapping purposes.
Noncats, such as civets and mongooses, were mostly indifferent to catnip, although a few exhibited sniffing reactions. An earlier study that predates Todd’s concluded that dogs, rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and fowls were indifferent to a powdered form of catnip that seduced domestic cats. Yet many dog owners report that their pets respond to catnip.
For some anecdotal evidence, we contacted several of the largest American zoos to see if they exposed their big cats to catnip. We found cat keepers almost as curious about catnip as the cats themselves.
We spoke to one cat keeper who fed jaguars catnip directly. “They like it,” he said. “They get goofy.” But the same keeper reported that a snow leopard wasn’t interested. Another keeper reported that tigers responded “to some extent.”
Rick Barongi, director of the Children’s Zoo at the San Diego Zoo, reports that although most pet owners usually spray catnip scent on a favorite toy of their cat, zoo keepers cannot. A jaguar or lion will simply rip apart and then eat the toy, so instead they spray a piece of wood or a log that a big cat can claw or scratch. Barongi shares the belief that all cats respond to catnip to some extent but that younger cats respond more than older cats, and that all cats react more on first exposure to catnip than in subsequent encounters.
After a thrill or two with catnip, the San Diego Zoo keepers have found that big cats are more entertained in the long run by scratch posts, boomer balls, larger cages, or—most expensive, but most satisfying of all—the pleasure of the company of a cage mate.
Submitted by Dave Williams of Ithaca, New York.
Why are there no purple Christmas lights?
We have read marketing studies indicating that purple is one of the least popular colors among consumers. But judging from all the purple stationery we receive from readers, purple is a popular color among women, especially among young women and girls. So it is probably no coincidence that the two correspondents who posed this Imponderable were of the female persuasion.
Some Christmas sets do include magenta lights, but you will never see deep purple lights. The absence is not a matter of taste but of high school physics. Carla M. Fischer, public relations representative of General Electric, explains:
The reason there are no deep purple lights is because purple light has the shortest wavelength and is not visible to the human eye.
For instance, when you see a red light, it is a result of the transparent material filtering all wavelengths of light except the red. The same is true for the other colors of the spectrum (remember ROY G BIV?) [a mnemonic for the length of wavelengths, representing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet].
…However, when the transparent material is purple, it filters out all other wavelengths of light except purple; since purple light is not visible to the human eye, you would only see black light.
Bill Middlebrook, a lighting applications specialist for Philips Lighting, concurred that purple bulbs emit a dim glow, indeed, while also making other low-output colors, such as green, look washed-out. Middlebrook added that even blue doesn’t really do its share of the illumination load and would probably be omitted from Christmas sets if it weren’t for its popularity. Philips has found that consumers prefer “the classics”: red, green, blue, and yellow. Of these colors, red and yellow provide by far the most illumination.
We asked Middlebrook if Philips conducted research to determine how to arrange the colors in the Christmas set. The answer: They are randomly arranged.
Submitted by Laurie Muscheid of Rocky Point, New York. Thanks also to Janice Flinn of Kemptville, Ontario.
Why do pet rodents drink water out of bottles instead of dishes or bowls?
Because we offer them bottles. Rats or guinea pigs would be more than happy to drink out of bowls or dishes as well. After all, in the wild, rodents have to fend for themselves, gathering water from lakes or ponds if they have easy access. More likely, their search for water will be more labor-intensive, involving extracting moisture from succulent plants or dew drops on greenery, or stumbling upon opportunistic puddles (the natural equivalent of a water dish).
Veterinarian David Moore, of Virginia Tech’s Office of Animal Resources, says that the practice of installing water bottles with sipper tubes was developed by researchers to promote the health of laboratory animals. When a rodent soiled the water in a bowl, bacteria grew and caused illness. On the other hand, it is anatomically impossible for a rat to defecate or urinate into a water bottle with a sipper tube.
Rodent owners have adopted the practice not only to safeguard their pets but to avoid the less than pleasant chore of cleaning soiled water bowls. Although dogs occasionally treat the toilet like a water bowl, luckily both dogs and cats can both be trained not to treat their water bowls like a toilet.
Submitted by Karyn Marchegiano of Newark, Delaware.
Why are there holes on the bottom of two- and three-liter soda bottles?
Technically, the holes are not on the bottle but on the bottom of the base cup. (The base cup’s function is to keep the bottle from tipping over.) The purpose of the holes is to allow the water that accumulates in the base cup (during the rinsing process at the assembly line) to drain out.
Steve Del Priore, plant manager of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of New York, told Imponderables that soda, when first entering the bottle, is at approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The bottle is then placed in a container of warm water so that the soda r
ises to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, causing condensation on the bottle, another way for water to seep into the base cup. If no drainage outlet were permitted, foul water might seep out of the base cup every time a consumer poured a drink.
Actually, we may not have holes in base cups to kick around too much longer. Margie Spurlock, manager of consumer affairs for Royal Crown Cola, told us that: “In the near future, base cups may be eliminated from these bottles as technology is in place to produce a one-piece bottle which has a base rigid enough to afford the necessary stability for the tall container.”
The main impetus for removing the base cups is environmental. The material used for base cups is not the same as that for the bottle itself, necessitating separating the two plastics at recycling centers, slowing down the process considerably.
Submitted by Carrie Schultz of Hinsdale, Illinois.
Why do drivers wire cardboard to their automobile grills during cold weather?
No, it isn’t to keep bugs from slipping under the hood. The cardboard is there to try to keep cold air from entering the engine.
When you drive, some kind of cooling fluid is needed to prevent burning fuel from overheating the car. The fluid is pumped through the engine and then the radiator, where the liquid is cooled by passing outside air over the radiator. The fluid then returns to the engine to remove more heat.
Are Lobsters Ambidextrous? Page 16