Is it true that the inventor invented a revolving door to avoid holding the door open for women?

Some sources say that the useful invention arose either because of a dislike for politeness and gallantry, or because of misogyny. We checked how true this version is.

A text found on the Internet about the creator of the revolving door reads: “Theophilus Van Kannel literally could not stand politeness. This man was not a boor, but the need to maintain decency and show politeness drove him out of balance. He hated letting other men pass ahead or taking advantage of what was offered to him to pass. But most of all, the inventor hated the need to maintain good manners towards women. Opening the door for a lady caused him real mental anguish. It is likely that such an unusual reaction to politeness was related to the characteristics of the inventor’s childhood. His mother was an extremely authoritarian, stern lady, incredibly demanding of the behavior and manners of her children. As a twelve-year-old teenager, Theophilus neglected his mother's demands and was not polite enough to hold the door for a whole crowd of women. The mother, without thinking twice, immediately pulled down the boy’s pants and spanked his bare buttocks, right in front of all those women whom he did not let pass in front of him at the door.” Such a presentation can be found, for example, on portals SeldonNews, FB.ru And "Interesting Facts", as well as in public "Amazing Facts" on VKontakte

Reports of Van Cannel's misogyny, which inspired his invention of the revolving door, first appeared in American popular science sources several years ago. In 2013 her told in the 99% Invisible podcast, which is dedicated to design. However, in another episode of the podcast, its author, Roman Mars, draws listeners’ attention to the fact that not all stated facts may be reliable. In 2008 Jamie Morrison mentioned Van Kannel's misogyny in his text for the portal The Nonist (in this source, apparently, the episode with the spanking is mentioned for the first time). However, in this case, the author states that he is not responsible for the truthfulness of what is told, but this does not prevent Russian-speaking authors from distributing their retelling without such a disclaimer.

Theophilus Van Kannel received patent for a “storm door structure” in 1888. In his patent application, he described the merits of his invention, but in no way mentioned that, thanks to the new design, people would not be required to hold the door for ladies. But the revolving doors worked silently, did not let in drafts and helped control the temperature inside the room, which, as the inventor pointed out, was especially important in public buildings.

Fact checkers from the authoritative American project Snopes studied autobiography and diary Van Kannel, which are stored in the Library of Congress. In these documents, totaling almost 500 pages, our colleagues did not find a single piece of evidence to support the popular legend. On the contrary, fact checkers found a number of evidence that the ideas of gallantry and even chivalry were not at all alien to Van Kannel, and he treated the ladies in his family and entourage with great respect. Snopes also checked archived newspaper reports about Van Kannel and found the same result.

In 2018, Jamie Morrison, the author of that very article in The Nonist, put an end to this story. He reported Snopes made up Van Kannel's "motivation" in his text without relying on any historical sources. “I wanted to confirm that the text was humorous and that the knightly aspect was completely fabricated. When I wrote this text, I decided that the very absurdity of the idea would be self-evident, but I even left a disclaimer,” Morrison wrote, complaining about the subsequent thoughtless dissemination of his note.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Snopes. Was the Revolving Door Invented by a Man Who Disliked Holding Open Doors for Women?
2. L. Stalder. Turning Architecture Inside out: Revolving Doors and Other Threshold Devices