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Automatic Door
An automatic door, also known as an auto door, is a door that opens automatically, usually on sensing the approach of a person.
In the 1st century AD, mathematician Heron of Alexandria in Roman Egypt invented the first known automatic door. He described two different automatic door applications. The first application used heat from a fire lit by the city's temple priest. After a few hours atmospheric pressure built up in a brass vessel causing it to pump water into adjacent containers. These containers acted as weights that – through a series of ropes and pulleys – would open the temple's doors at about the time people were to arrive for prayer. Heron used a similar application to open the gates to the city.[1]
In 1931, engineers Horace H. Raymond and Sheldon S. Roby of the tool and hardware manufacturer Stanley Works designed the first model of an optical device triggering the opening of an automatic door. The invention was patented and installed in Wilcox's Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut for the benefit of waiters carrying plates of food and drink. The entire system plus installation was sold for $100.[2][3]
In 1954, Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt invented the first sliding automatic door. The automatic door used a mat actuator. In 1960, they co-founded Horton Automatics Inc and placed the first commercial automatic sliding door on the market.[4]
Chesterfield is a large market town and borough in Derbyshire, England,[1] 24 miles (39 km) north of Derby and 11 miles (18 km) south of Sheffield at the confluence of the River Rother and River Hipper. Including Whittington, Brimington and Staveley, it had a population of 103,801 in 2012,[2] making it Derbyshire's second largest town. It has been traced to a soon-abandoned Roman fort of the 1st century AD.[3] The name of the later Anglo-Saxon village comes from the Old English ceaster (Roman fort) and feld (pasture).[4][5] Its sizeable street market is held three days a week.[6] The town sits on a coalfield, but little visual evidence of mining remains. Its great landmark is the Church of St Mary and All Saints with a crooked spire.
