In TV shows people are always taking the doorknob away to trap people in rooms and such…how does this not just allow the door to swing open and/or how can the trapped people not just stick their fingers in the hole to pull back the piece that goes in the wall?
In: Engineering
Before the popular Kwikset design, mortise mechanisms standardized on a 1 cm wide square hole that was rotated 90˚ to unlatch the door. It’s pretty hard to turn a hole with this size, given the strong springs that were also popular in the past, unless you have a tool that fits inside it.
If they remove just the knob what renown’s is a stubby little square piece of metal, and if the spring is strong enough, it’s pretty hard to overcome with your fingers
I’ve never seen this in a TV show. That being said, if you took out the knob on one end, replacing it with a cover panel, it could make a one-way door that once latched, could only be opened from one side. But yes, if you removed the doorknob entirely, there would be no mechanism to hold the latch in place and one could easily latch or unlatch it by reaching into the hole.
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