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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]

​Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington /ˈlɛmɪŋtən/ (About this soundlisten), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following the popularisation of its water which was reputed to have medicinal qualities.[2] In the 19th century, the town experienced one of the most rapid expansions in England.[3] It is named after the River Leam, which flows through the town.

The town contains especially fine ensembles of Regency architecture,[4] particularly in parts of the Parade, Clarendon Square and Lansdowne Circus.

In the 2011 census Leamington had a population of 49,662.[1] Leamington is contiguous with the neighbouring towns of Warwick and Whitnash; these form a combined urban area which in 2011 had a population of 95,172.[5]

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