Doors

Hinges on doors are not hung at equal spacings. In the UK hinges hang 6 inches down from the top of the door and 9 inches up from the bottom. This is because of the optical illusion created by the eyesight of 'foreshortening' when looking down at the bottom hinge. In the USA the space is 5" and 10" with the exception of some western states where 7" and 11" is the norm. The middle hinge is always placed equally between the two.

A French door was also known as a French window. Basically it was a window that served the purpose of a door at the end of the Renaissance period around the time of Louis XIV the Great, the Sun King. The original French doors were constructed of individual, single paned pieces of glass and wood. The window/doors led out on balconies and allowed for the maximum amount of light to enter the room.

In October 1968, The Buick car company offered the Doors around $75,000 to $100,000 for the use of the song "Light my Fire", changing the lyrics from "come on baby, light my fire" to "come on, Buick, light my fire". All of the band except Jim Morrison agreed to this deal. When Morrison found out he phoned Buick and threatened to "smash a Buick on television with a sledgehammer ".

Door is the name of the main character in Neil Gaiman's novel "Neverwhere". Door, a young woman from London Below, is the daughter of a noble family. She possesses her family’s innate ability to “open” things. A new adaptation by BBC Radio Four starts on 16th March and features an amazing cast, including James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Bernard Cribbens and Johnny Vegas. More information can be found here.

Paris is thought to be the first city to introduce house numbers in 1512. In the UK this did not happen until 1765. Around the middle of the 19th century it was common for houses to be numbered sequentially along one side of the road, and carried on on the other side. In Latin America houses are numbered in ascending order from downtown to the border of the city.

In "The Nightmare Before Christmas" there are seven doorways in seven trees. The doors are all different shapes and lead to different places. They are: Halloween - Jack-o-Lantern, Christmas - Christmas Tree, Valentines Day - Heart, St. Patricks Day - Clover, Thanksgiving - Turkey, Easter - Easter Egg, Independence Day - Firecracker. It is stated in "The Making of..." book that the most difficult shot to film in the entire movie was the shot in which Jack is reaching for the doorknob to Christmasland. Viewers can see the perfect surround reflection of the forest around Jack in the background.

No 10 Downing Street is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in Britain. The front door cannot be opened from the outside because it has no handle, and no one can enter the building without passing through a scanner and a set of security gates manned by armed guards. However, in the first five years after Tony Blair became prime minister, 37 computers, four mobile phones, two cameras, a mini-disc player, a video recorder, four printers, two projectors and a bicycle were stolen from the building.

Accidents involving revolving doors seem to be pretty extreme. In 2004 six year old Ryo Mizokawa, from Osaka Prefecture in western Japan, died after his head became trapped in a revolving door at the Mori Tower building. In January 2013 Alan TBH Plumptre, high-society magazine Tatler's in-house dachshund, came to a grisly end. the dog was outside being walked when he bolted towards a man who was entering the building. Alan tried to rush through the revolving doors but got his neck caught.

The sound of the doors in the Star Wars films was made by pulling a piece of paper in and out of an envelope. The same effect was used in Star Trek. The J.J. Abrams Star Trek film ditched the paper and envelope and replaced it with a vacuum flush toilet.