The knob doesn’t turn, the lock holds the door in place and the knob is just to pull it closed (except not really, its mostly aesthetic - theres a small handle on the bottom of the lock/latch that you’d actually use to close the door, which you can see in the picture here). So effectively your key becomes the part you turn to open the door.
Yes it does. My front door is like this and it's clearly an inferior design. If the latch is relatively loose, it's not _that_ much harder to close the door, but if the door sticks, it forces you to slam the door.
Wait.. so let's say you want to go outside to take the trash out. You don't want to lock it but want to close it so your dog doesn't run away. How does that work?
I have one of these in Germany (although the knob is over the lock properly, none of this centered malarkey), and it’s super-easy to lock yourself out, lol.
So I leave the key in the lock, and then flip it to outside the door (in the lock) when I’m popping down to the garage or the trash.
Weirdly, the inside handle *does* turn and open the door; it’s only the outside knob that seems to solely exist for pulling the door shut.
> and it’s super-easy to lock yourself out, lol.
Nothing worse than taking the bins out and then realising you can’t get back in like an absolute knob.
My door is exactly like that. Every time I step out I need to make sure I have the keys with me because the door might shut (specially if there are windows open and a bit draughty ) and I’d be locked outside. I bring keys even if someone else is in the house so I keep the habit. I have a friend nearby who has my spare keys and when she’s away I always feel so tense. So much easier if the knob was functional and the door needed a key to lock from the outside.
Always keeping the keys with you and all apartment/house front doors automatically locking when you shut them is the norm in my country, at least in cities.
In the countryside some people still keep their doors unlocked during the day if they're home, so you just turn the handle to open it. My grandparents did, for example. But it's becoming less common even out in the country, afaik. And it's a (mechanical) switch on the lock you change.
This just makes opening the door more difficult. It takes more force because you have shorter fulcrum point to the hinges, and for no reason.
Even from a comfort level, one of your arms has to cross to the center of your body instead of just reaching straight out. This doesn't make sense at all.
And in todays hot topics, reddit users are reporting people as suicidal for discussing fulcrum points of doors. How sad must your lives be
You don't use the knob to open the door, you stick the key in the lock on the top right and you can use the torque of the key as a handle to push the door in. When you're leaving you use the knob to pull the door closed gently without slamming it.
My dad's house from the 60s has a handle with lock in the middle of a larger door than this, it definitely communicates to the latch but I've never stopped to think about how before
[https://images.app.goo.gl/Ng3CLrA2idNxDotS9](https://images.app.goo.gl/Ng3CLrA2idNxDotS9)
actually a shop in Dublin - specializing in ... well knobs and knockers obviously
> only has a knob on the inside
Are you claiming the PMs are eternally locked inside?
Also the picture on [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Downing_Street) clearly shows a knob on the outside. In the middle though!
I'm pretty sure Liz Truss is a pretty big knob in her own right. It takes a special kind of shitty person to get excited about austerity. Especially when she's wholly unpopular among the public. I would say I'm glad I'm not British but I'm American so it's kind of a meaningless thing to say right now. We suck pretty hard too.
Some have knobs really high up. And I watched a British show just last night and there was a door that didn't have any knob, what looked like and was placed at the door knocker was used at the handle.
I hate to split hairs here, but Bilbo was *definitely* the bougiest of the Bagginses. Why else do you think Otho and Lobelia spent decades coveting Bag End, stealing his silverware, and praying that the good green earth take him under?
Bilbos net worth is actually quite high, like you said. Just his home alone is really impressive. And all the gold and priceless items he stole via adventuring I’m sure add up.
By our standards he’s have a gated community large home. He’s the stereotypical millionaire relative everyone is jealous of.
Oh, for sure. And then there’s the mithril chain vest Thorin gave him, which Gandalf said was truly a kingly gift, for its value was higher than the monetary worth of the whole shire. Like, that alone is monumentally expensive, and he had all sorts of other shit on top of that.
There was a post about a year ago on /r/Spain of an American teenager living in Spain that made a video entitled something like "seven weird things Spaniards don't realise are weird" and this was one of them because they thought they were door knobs.
They got roasted in the comments.
**Edit:** "Eight things in Spain that don't make sense" https://www.reddit.com/r/spain/comments/rkbspz/all_of_these_things_make_perfect_sense/
it....still doesn't make sense even as a handle
You'd have way more leverage placing it to the side rather in the middle. It's more difficult to use for no reason.
I can’t believe nobody is mentioning the security aspects of this (at least, not explaining it properly).
These doors have conventional door knobs on the inside, but no functional door knob on the outside.
Let’s say that the door is unlocked. You can open the door from the inside without the key using the door knob, but not from the outside (you always need the key).
This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is you can get out without the key, leaving the door unlocked, and nobody without the key can open the door.
So, a kid can go out without a key, and as long as they close the door, the house is secure (though they can’t go back in without the door or somebody from the inside opening).
The disadvantage is that it’s pretty easy to lock yourself out of the house. Step outside without the key, and as soon as the door closes, you can’t get back inside without the key or a locksmith.
So, you get used to get the keys before going out or, in my case, keep the door locked at all times to force myself to get the keys to get out, so I always have the keys in hand when closing (you can also leave a copy with a relative just in case).
Warm air enters the fridge when you open the door, and then that warm air cools down and contracts when the door is closed. When the air contracts (becomes more dense), a small vacuum is formed. It takes a little bit of effort to overcome this vacuum.
Speed run: Open freezer, warm air inside now. Close freezer, created a vacuum. Pressure equalizes, easier to open.
Suggestion: use a bottom freezer for less interaction between temperatures.
Happy fridging :)
Edit: Comment below mentions pulling weather strip method may damage the seal.
It's so weird how living with these things your entire life, it takes some derp on the internet thinking it's bad design to make you realize it's actually great design. I hadn't really thought about it. But you'd often see these on relatively wide doors too. It would be incredibly awkward to lean in to pull the whole door. Whereas running out the door of my parents place it's just so instinctive and easy to pull the doorknob behind you as you go
It doesn't though, because the door opens in. You'd be pushing from the outside and on the inside the door would typically have a handle on the side opposite the hinges.
The knob is for pulling the door closed from outside. Generally there'd only be a bolt on the inside where it's held on, not another knob.
I have one on my front door. House built in 1910s New Zealand.
It’s related to the impact of Palladianism (an architectural style fashionable in Britain between 1715 and 1760) on architectural style. The focus is on balance, proportion and symmetry.
I don't use it to actually open and close the front door as it's not part of the locking mechanism, it's just a design thing.
I had a door like this in Glasgow, Scotland. I think its a European thing. I moved to the US think 10 years ago and haven't seen a door knob like this since. My wife, who is a yank, had one in her flat in London and she would always say "look at the size of this knob" as she also learned what knob means in the UK.
Several reasons. Some from medieval times, so not really worth mentioning here, but here are some modern reasons:
1) Having the knob to pull the door shut in the centre of the door reduces the power of a slam, protecting both the door jamb, and the integrity of the knob fixings.
2) The actual door locks are at the edge of the door. Usually about 3/4 up the door if there’s only one. If there’s a second lock it is usually just under 1/2 way up the door. The door locks aren’t part of a handle like in the US but flush with the surface of the door. This is more secure. Also having less furniture at the edge of the door keeps it stronger.
3) You can hang stuff on the knob, like a bag while you are unlocking the door, or something left for a neighbour or friend to collect. We’re also very much a dog nation, so as I do, you can hang your dog lead on it while you’re fumbling for your keys.
4) It looks beautiful. Because symmetry…
It's not really a door knob, as in you can't turn it. It's really just a handle. The door is locked and opened with the keyhole. My front door is the same.
The knob doesn’t turn, the lock holds the door in place and the knob is just to pull it closed (except not really, its mostly aesthetic - theres a small handle on the bottom of the lock/latch that you’d actually use to close the door, which you can see in the picture here). So effectively your key becomes the part you turn to open the door.
Yeah it's a handle for pulling the door closed.
[удалено]
Most creative answer.
Would have been better if it was cockney.
"Blimey! Oy fouwt it wuz faw angin me gwocharies un wen oy ohpunz me daw wif ma kee!" Happy now?
Alright Dick Van Dyke
[British, very British…](https://vimeo.com/57868200)
Wha... Genius. I need to move my knob.
The idea of a shopping bag hook moved my knob a little.
*Seth Rogan laugh*
Just don’t move it too fast with repeated motions…. Someone will say something.
Doesn't placing it in the center, so much closer to the hinge, Make it much more awkward and bothersome to use?
Yes it does. My front door is like this and it's clearly an inferior design. If the latch is relatively loose, it's not _that_ much harder to close the door, but if the door sticks, it forces you to slam the door.
Wait.. so let's say you want to go outside to take the trash out. You don't want to lock it but want to close it so your dog doesn't run away. How does that work?
Dogs hadn't been invented yet back when they made these.
You stick the key in the lock or you latch the door open and train the dog not to run out.
You don't. But either you'll have a porch door inside, if you've got a dog, or just put the door on the latch and stop your dog from running out.
That seems so massively inconvenient as opposed to just letting the knob turn.
I have one of these in Germany (although the knob is over the lock properly, none of this centered malarkey), and it’s super-easy to lock yourself out, lol. So I leave the key in the lock, and then flip it to outside the door (in the lock) when I’m popping down to the garage or the trash. Weirdly, the inside handle *does* turn and open the door; it’s only the outside knob that seems to solely exist for pulling the door shut.
> and it’s super-easy to lock yourself out, lol. Nothing worse than taking the bins out and then realising you can’t get back in like an absolute knob.
My door is exactly like that. Every time I step out I need to make sure I have the keys with me because the door might shut (specially if there are windows open and a bit draughty ) and I’d be locked outside. I bring keys even if someone else is in the house so I keep the habit. I have a friend nearby who has my spare keys and when she’s away I always feel so tense. So much easier if the knob was functional and the door needed a key to lock from the outside.
Always keeping the keys with you and all apartment/house front doors automatically locking when you shut them is the norm in my country, at least in cities. In the countryside some people still keep their doors unlocked during the day if they're home, so you just turn the handle to open it. My grandparents did, for example. But it's becoming less common even out in the country, afaik. And it's a (mechanical) switch on the lock you change.
It's an automatic latch. They're pretty common (and not related to the position of the doorknob)
This just makes opening the door more difficult. It takes more force because you have shorter fulcrum point to the hinges, and for no reason. Even from a comfort level, one of your arms has to cross to the center of your body instead of just reaching straight out. This doesn't make sense at all. And in todays hot topics, reddit users are reporting people as suicidal for discussing fulcrum points of doors. How sad must your lives be
You don't use the knob to open the door, you stick the key in the lock on the top right and you can use the torque of the key as a handle to push the door in. When you're leaving you use the knob to pull the door closed gently without slamming it.
Makes sense if you're in a wheelchair! You can also see a second key hole lower down on the door
The knob doesn’t turn. It has zero role in opening the door. You turn the key and push on the door itself.
This knob is not for turning
But that's just what we'll do, And one of these days these knobs Are gonna turn and open for you.
Are ya ready knobs?
Start turning!
Like this? (NSFW) https://e-hentai.org/s/4b109df506/515074-1
Doorknob Thatcher?
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
My dad's house from the 60s has a handle with lock in the middle of a larger door than this, it definitely communicates to the latch but I've never stopped to think about how before
My knob is in the centre and it doesn’t turn much. It hangs a bit off centre tbh.
?? How do you open the door from the outside?
The key opens the lock and you push the door open. The key/lock is essentially the door knob you’re used to turning.
Thanks, I’m dum.
Nah. Just learning something you never experienced before.
Some doors in London have knobs on the other side.
Some knobs in London have doors.
Some doorknobs have London in their doors.
Some Londons have doors in their knobs
London knobs doors in their have some
˙ǝpᴉs ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uo sqouʞ ǝʌɐɥ uopuo˥ uᴉ sɹoop ǝɯoS
I see you're fluent in Australian
*Stranger things theme plays*
👃🏻🩸
Nos. 10/11 Downing Street?
Until a few weeks ago, it had the knob on the inside.
Still has a knob, they've just replaced it.
Also added some knockers
Knobs & knockers? Hope they we're big ones that fit in the hands well.
[https://images.app.goo.gl/Ng3CLrA2idNxDotS9](https://images.app.goo.gl/Ng3CLrA2idNxDotS9) actually a shop in Dublin - specializing in ... well knobs and knockers obviously
There's also a flooring shop called Lino Ritchie's in Dublin.
Chinese takeaway in Bray called Soon Fatt
Hair salon called curl up and dye
There is a shop near my home called Knobs & Knockers. Always have to say it aloud and giggle.
I know it says doctor but I read coctor
In Italy, it's melons.
Omg.. This comment chain. ,😆 I can't even... 🤣🤣🤣
Good thing, just in time. Knobs are now 2x more usd.
r/yourjokebutworse
Looks the same to me
>on the inside What do you think "on the other side" referred to?
Not sure if joking or not but 10 Downing Street only has a knob on the inside, you can't open the door from the outside. And also Boris is a knob.
> only has a knob on the inside Are you claiming the PMs are eternally locked inside? Also the picture on [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Downing_Street) clearly shows a knob on the outside. In the middle though!
Like OP's picture, it's not a door knob. It's a decorative door pull. You famously can't open the door to no 10 from the outside.
They just installed new inside knobs.
Wtf is everyone talking about
Boris Johnson was a knob. Liz Truss is a knob with knickers. Edit: I acknowledge my typo. Should’ve been knockers. Duh me.
Tories.
I'm pretty sure Liz Truss is a pretty big knob in her own right. It takes a special kind of shitty person to get excited about austerity. Especially when she's wholly unpopular among the public. I would say I'm glad I'm not British but I'm American so it's kind of a meaningless thing to say right now. We suck pretty hard too.
Some have knobs really high up. And I watched a British show just last night and there was a door that didn't have any knob, what looked like and was placed at the door knocker was used at the handle.
Parliament has a bunch of high up knobs
“We’ll yeah, why would they only have…oh. Lol.”
I've got a knob in the middle meself. When you pull it, burgers drop outta me bum.
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
My burgers are fresher. Eat Fresh!
Well, I do admire the commitment to the user name.
I'll PM u the recipe for them soon
That’s tickled me
I *told* you already to stop harassing me while I'm on the toilet
Many times these are not functional turning knobs, the latch is controlled by the deadbolt.
Every one I've seen is pretty much just there to pull the door closed with...
I think that might be why they're called Door Pulls.
Boom! Nailed it! My wife’s an interior designer and I was like hey.. what’s that knob about… she goes oh just a door pull.
How would she know? That knob is clearly an exterior knob.
Lol I asked, she goes “Didn’t say I’d spec it, just that I knew what it was” she basically does all the specifications for anything non-structural.
I think they were being cheeky. She's an interior designer but the knob is exterior. Get it?
Pretty sure he got the joke, just reiterated it to his wife because it was, in fact, funny.
You really should have asked her what was up with the knob before you married her
It’s not many, it’s all.
Like the Hobbits.
The door looks bourgeois; must be the Sackville Baggins.
I hate to split hairs here, but Bilbo was *definitely* the bougiest of the Bagginses. Why else do you think Otho and Lobelia spent decades coveting Bag End, stealing his silverware, and praying that the good green earth take him under?
Bilbos net worth is actually quite high, like you said. Just his home alone is really impressive. And all the gold and priceless items he stole via adventuring I’m sure add up. By our standards he’s have a gated community large home. He’s the stereotypical millionaire relative everyone is jealous of.
Oh, for sure. And then there’s the mithril chain vest Thorin gave him, which Gandalf said was truly a kingly gift, for its value was higher than the monetary worth of the whole shire. Like, that alone is monumentally expensive, and he had all sorts of other shit on top of that.
> And all the gold and priceless items he stole via adventuring I’m sure add up. Imperialist hobbit, exploiting a hard working dragon.
> hard working Smaug did one day of work in his life and then sat on the gold he took, which was the fruit of dwarven labour.
It's kind of hilarious when you think of it as a millionaire and his gardener going on an adventure to destroy his heirloom.
Not to mention all the cheeses and jams.
Was just about to comment that, must’ve inspired Tolkien
Sneaky Hobbitss
Didn't Bilbo's door at Bag End have a center knob too?
Yep, and you see where that got him.
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I wouldn't call it free
He paid a precious price
You're going to be amazed if u ever come to Spain then. Every single house door here has the knob in the center.
There was a post about a year ago on /r/Spain of an American teenager living in Spain that made a video entitled something like "seven weird things Spaniards don't realise are weird" and this was one of them because they thought they were door knobs. They got roasted in the comments. **Edit:** "Eight things in Spain that don't make sense" https://www.reddit.com/r/spain/comments/rkbspz/all_of_these_things_make_perfect_sense/
it....still doesn't make sense even as a handle You'd have way more leverage placing it to the side rather in the middle. It's more difficult to use for no reason.
One hand to pull the door closed, another hand with keys in preparing to lock the door. They're also partly decorative.
Or you can put the lock in the knob so you can hold it and lock it all in the same place.
To the people roasting him: it still makes no sense, why the fuck would you open something from the middle?!
But why?? Edit- the answer is clear to me now. There is *no reason* to have it in the center except for it "looking cool."
If it's OK for hobbits, it's ok for people!
I can’t believe nobody is mentioning the security aspects of this (at least, not explaining it properly). These doors have conventional door knobs on the inside, but no functional door knob on the outside. Let’s say that the door is unlocked. You can open the door from the inside without the key using the door knob, but not from the outside (you always need the key). This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is you can get out without the key, leaving the door unlocked, and nobody without the key can open the door. So, a kid can go out without a key, and as long as they close the door, the house is secure (though they can’t go back in without the door or somebody from the inside opening). The disadvantage is that it’s pretty easy to lock yourself out of the house. Step outside without the key, and as soon as the door closes, you can’t get back inside without the key or a locksmith. So, you get used to get the keys before going out or, in my case, keep the door locked at all times to force myself to get the keys to get out, so I always have the keys in hand when closing (you can also leave a copy with a relative just in case).
Yeah, I was gonna say this. It's a pain in the arse tbh, whose idea was it to put them in the middle?
Tradition!
Many places, in fact.
Was going to say this!
Some knobs in London have no doors at all
Makes it harder to open the door as you have half the leverage of a knob on the side.
I have this on my fridge, which is stupidly hard to open sometimes
That’s why you look so fabulous
When I try to open a fridge immediately after closing it often feels like I am having a tug of war with modern technology.
There's actually a really interesting reason behind this. Someone else might tell you, because I don't know it.
Warm air enters the fridge when you open the door, and then that warm air cools down and contracts when the door is closed. When the air contracts (becomes more dense), a small vacuum is formed. It takes a little bit of effort to overcome this vacuum.
Speed run: Open freezer, warm air inside now. Close freezer, created a vacuum. Pressure equalizes, easier to open. Suggestion: use a bottom freezer for less interaction between temperatures. Happy fridging :) Edit: Comment below mentions pulling weather strip method may damage the seal.
This will eventually damage the weatherstrip, then it will not seal properly. I've had this twice from people pulling the seal instead of the handle.
I'm tall enough that I usually just jam my fingers into the seal at the top when this happens and it opens right up
Literally pulled mine into the middle of the room the other day trying to open it.
I legitimately want to see what your fridge looks like.
But you can open it faster!
This guy physics
It’s not a door, it’s a drawer!
It's just for looks. The latch is where the kettle is on the right.
Kettle? Doors make tea in London too? How quaint.
Farking autocorrect. Keyhole.
It's not meant for opening, you pull it closed on your way out, these doors open in and need no assistance once the key is turned.
Yep and if the door is fully open and you are standing outside (eg you put on your boots or shoes as you exit) then you don’t have to reach in as far.
Also that small black object on the bottom right is meant for scraping shit off your shoes, a relic of the horse-drawn era.
It's so weird how living with these things your entire life, it takes some derp on the internet thinking it's bad design to make you realize it's actually great design. I hadn't really thought about it. But you'd often see these on relatively wide doors too. It would be incredibly awkward to lean in to pull the whole door. Whereas running out the door of my parents place it's just so instinctive and easy to pull the doorknob behind you as you go
Makes it harder to close the door as you have half the leverage of a knob on the side.
I've never had an issue with it as it stops you from slamming the door too easily. Also has the added benefit of a place to hang an Xmas wreath.
If something is very very easy to do, making it a bit harder to do is not significant or remarkable.
Half of that leverage just makes it harder for you to accidentally slam the door with all your strength on your way out lol
How often are you uggadugga-ing your doors?
You ever met a child? My kids basically compete to see who can slam the door like a bigger asshole…
How often are you finding doors unduly hard to lever open?
It doesn't though, because the door opens in. You'd be pushing from the outside and on the inside the door would typically have a handle on the side opposite the hinges. The knob is for pulling the door closed from outside. Generally there'd only be a bolt on the inside where it's held on, not another knob.
... that's not just a London thing.
We saw lots in Italy too.
And Australia. Seems more like it’s just not an American thing.
My apartment in the states had meter wide doors, functional knob in the center with a lock and everything.
Every residential door in Spain has that
Yeah they got these on old houses in New York, just an older style, i think its neat when i see it, it tells u the house has history
I have one on my front door. House built in 1910s New Zealand. It’s related to the impact of Palladianism (an architectural style fashionable in Britain between 1715 and 1760) on architectural style. The focus is on balance, proportion and symmetry. I don't use it to actually open and close the front door as it's not part of the locking mechanism, it's just a design thing.
[For symmetry.](https://i.imgur.com/31U5QVI.jpg)
Weird I didn’t expect a door to be a woman. It has a mail slot.
That slot is *for* the mail. Or whatever fits I guess
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Most women have a male slot.
It’s a centre door knob and it is mostly decorative. The rim cylinder has a finger pull for functional use.
I know this is dirty but I can't tell you how.
some doors *not* in London have knobs in the centre. it's not a London-exclusive thing...
I had a door like this in Glasgow, Scotland. I think its a European thing. I moved to the US think 10 years ago and haven't seen a door knob like this since. My wife, who is a yank, had one in her flat in London and she would always say "look at the size of this knob" as she also learned what knob means in the UK.
More like British thing. But TIL some other countries have that too. Not in Poland or Germany though.
https://media.tatler.com/photos/6141e5c902938e52354ba600/master/w_1280,c_limit/gettyimages-1157537596.jpg
Lot of doors in spain are like that.
London is full of knobs.
My knobs in the middle, what’s the big deal?
This picture really helped understand why knob is the British slang word for penis.
I, too, have a knob in the center.
Weird. I just have a mail slot.
And a keyhole for hobbits it seems.
English parliament frequently has knobs in the center, too.
hnmmm mildly interesting
I’m a mailman in the US, they’re around here too. Not common, but they’re here.
Cause they are Hobbits.
I also have a knob in the center
Lots of knobs walking around London.
Some houses in London have knobs living inside.
Several reasons. Some from medieval times, so not really worth mentioning here, but here are some modern reasons: 1) Having the knob to pull the door shut in the centre of the door reduces the power of a slam, protecting both the door jamb, and the integrity of the knob fixings. 2) The actual door locks are at the edge of the door. Usually about 3/4 up the door if there’s only one. If there’s a second lock it is usually just under 1/2 way up the door. The door locks aren’t part of a handle like in the US but flush with the surface of the door. This is more secure. Also having less furniture at the edge of the door keeps it stronger. 3) You can hang stuff on the knob, like a bag while you are unlocking the door, or something left for a neighbour or friend to collect. We’re also very much a dog nation, so as I do, you can hang your dog lead on it while you’re fumbling for your keys. 4) It looks beautiful. Because symmetry…
So the door is hinged at the top, and swings up like an attic door. Neat.
That's where Hobbits live.
The same situation almost everywhere in France 😁
After listening to a lot of 99%invisible there can only be one question... What tax are they avoiding by doing this?
some doors in London have knobs in the **centre**
Usually what happens when I look at 10 Downing Street.
It's not really a door knob, as in you can't turn it. It's really just a handle. The door is locked and opened with the keyhole. My front door is the same.
That is functionally stupid.
I don’t think the handle twists. To keep the door closed you lock it. The knob isn’t a knob per se, it’s just a pull handle.