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Facts About Door Knobs and Handles

Facts About Door Knobs and Handles

It can be so easy to ignore the simple things in life that provide a necessary function. Here at More Handles we’ve dedicated our working lives to door handles and we love to share that passion with our customers. We thought we’d impart some interesting door handle knowledge so that you can see why we’ve been selling door handles for so long. These facts are in turn interesting and surprising – delve into a bit of the history of our favourite piece of hardware.

Who invented the door knob?

They Were Only Invented 136 Years Ago. Patented in 1878 by the inventor Osbourn Dorsey, the door handle as we know it today has been around for a relatively short period of time. When he filed the patent for the doorknob he also registered the first internal door latching mechanism. Even after this simple and ingenious invention had come along it still took a while for it to become a common fixture across the world. Perhaps people found it confusing – it makes you wonder what people did before door handles. Was the world perpetually closing doors caught in drafts? Did they hire door-holders, which could mean the invention of the door handle put hundreds of honest working door-holders out of a job? Who knows. What’s significant here is that they’re a relatively new idea. Good thing we all caught on.

The Tudors Helped Make Door Handles Popular

Believe it or not The Tudors helped to usher in the popular usage of door handles. It wasn’t until the Tudors ascended to the throne that sufficient political stability and prosperity was in place across Britain. This new reign ensued a prolonged period of building and reconstruction, which inevitably created the foundations for the door knob to come into common practice. It was around this time that the function of the door began to change drastically.

Originally doors would have been made from animal hide and homes would have consisted of one large room, which made door handles irrelevant. For them to reach their full purpose then the door itself would have to change. There would need to be wooden doors and hinges to hang them on as well as the technology to make them. When the Tudors changed how a house functioned they also, inadvertently, created a demand for door handles. Giving each room in the house a separate function, as opposed to having one large multi functioning room, meant that the rooms had to be separated and, eventually, locked for privacy.

Do brass doorknobs disinfect themselves?

Brass Door Knobs like Our Wenlock Flower Mortice Door Knob in Polished Brass Disinfect Themselves After Eight Hours.

Brass door handles implement the Oligodynamic effect. This means that the metal ions present have a toxic effect on living cells, algae, molds etc. This makes them antimicrobial, making them safer to use. As it is easy for germs to live on the surface of a door handle it is important to be aware of hygiene when they are in use. This is also why you may find a lot of brass door handles in old hospitals. Stainless steel and aluminium knobs, however, never disinfect themselves so it is important to be extra careful with hand hygiene around them.

Door Knobs Can Be Political

Vancouver have very recently passed legislation outlawing round doorknobs in new construction homes. The favouring of protruding levers has come about due to complaints being made by their elderly community. Residents were saying that round door knobs in particular were making access difficult around their homes. However some people have gone against this claim and stated that having more protruding levers can in fact harm the younger members of their community. Children aged between six in ten in particular are at risk of hurting their heads on the door handles. Children are more than likely to hurt themselves at that age, however, this new legislation could compound those injuries.