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"Open Sesame"

Creator:  Architectural and Mechanical Hints Group (authors)
Date: December 1933
Publication: The Polio Chronicle
Source: Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation Archives


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In the Tales of the Arabian Nights, it took magic words to open the cave, but in the modern wonderland of invention it doesn't require even that. An uncanny automatic door easily ranks as one of Georgia Hall's leading attractions. You walk toward it and, presto! it opens for you! You pass through and an unseen mechanical doorman closes the door behind you.

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A door that opens and closes itself is a fit entrance to "A Polio's Paradise," as Georgia Hall was named in the May, 1933, POLIO CHRONICLE. The equipment is an application of the electric eye which was described in the October, 1932, POLIO CHRONICLE.

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The equipment is by Stanley, and consists of two lights and two light-sensitive cells which operate a pneumatic opening and closing device. The light bullseye and receiving cell can be seen on either side of the entryway in the picture. When a patient interrupts the light beam between the two fixtures the mechanism opens the door. A time-delay device provides that the door stays open until the light beam on the other side is interrupted, when it closes. However, it will not remain open indefinitely if only one beam is interrupted. The time-delay mechanism again comes into play to close the door after a safe interval.

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Can you imagine anything finer than this silent "open sesame" for this door, which more than any other, is used by patients going in and out of Georgia Hall. Complete information is obtainable from the Architectural and Mechanical Hints Group of the National Patient's Committee at Warm Springs.

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