Walking through this revolving door would be like squeezing between two giant, touching, rolls of paper towels that can rotate on vertical axels. Each “roll” is a cylindrical torus of durable, transparent plastic, inflated with tepid air.

As one walks between the two tall donuts, they conform to the body, allowing very little air exchange between inside and outside. An imperfect airlock, they would hold in the warm air in the winter, the cool air in the summer and keep clean and polluted atmospheres apart.

A crimped surface structure and motorized rotation would avoid any risk of hug suffocation. Three tori in a row allow simultaneous entrance and exit on either side of the central cylinder.
-- FarmerJohn, Mar 22 2004

Clean up your room! http://www.intel.co...cleanroom/index.htm
Intel cleanrooms contain about one speck of dust per cubic foot. Check out the suiting up procedure on page 2. [Detly, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

The Tori Amos Homepage http://www.mit.edu/.../nocturne/tori.html
[FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Tori Spelling Fan Site http://www.celebritycd.com/torispelling/
[FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

This might be good for cleanrooms, like they have in laboratories for semiconductor fabrication or handling of vacuum parts.
-- Detly, Mar 22 2004


Could you also put sticky tape on the rollers so all the loose lint is removed from your clothes at the same time?
-- Bobble, Mar 22 2004


And you could use the out-roller to make pasta during the morning *in* rush...and vice-versa. Nice +
-- squeak, Mar 22 2004


Coming soon, instead of a pet flap, the draftless door mangle.
-- FarmerJohn, Mar 22 2004


+ from me. On Friday night I was discussing the very subject of how to stop the cold draft coming into the pub every time somebody came in the door and hey presto! A solution appears. Spooky!
-- DrBob, Mar 22 2004


Interesting. But I'd worry about stuff collecting on the surfaces, y'know, from the previous passers.
-- waugsqueke, Mar 22 2004


+ Pleasant augmentation of the sensation of passage from one environment to another. Birth canal-esque.
-- Mungo, Mar 22 2004


//stuff collecting on the surfaces//
Yes, this would be a great way to keep OCD folks out of your building.
-- krelnik, Mar 22 2004


Keeping them clean could be done with washy thingys on the outside, maybe.
-- Detly, Mar 23 2004


(Warning sign which reads)
If you are pregnant, have high blood pressure, or are at all claustrophobic please use entrance to your right.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 23 2004


You must be at least this tall to use the revolving door tori.
-- krelnik, Mar 23 2004


"hmmm, the guy who just went through these revolving door tori appears to have sneezed whilst doing so..."
-- hippo, Mar 24 2004


I like this. Reminds me of a schoolmate's design solution for a new front door. His were not rotating, were filled with gel, and required you to crawl through. He was interested in the metaphorical re-birth as you leave the house, and the metaphorical crawling back into the womb when you came home. I can imagine a less literal, but similar effect, with the tori, possibly in reverse, when you go to work or shopping.

Go to work=crawl into the belly of the beast.

Leave work=re-birth.
-- oxen crossing, Mar 25 2004


In case of fire, call loved ones, leave final words ...
-- Letsbuildafort, Mar 25 2004


City buses should be equipped with these -- entrance on the front, exit on the back. You stand in the road when you see your bus coming and the rollers suck you in (the bus doesn't have to stop.) The constant influx of new passengers eventually pushes you to the back where you get spat out through the exit rollers. If you aren't home yet, you wait for the next bus.
-- AO, Mar 25 2004


I do have visions of people suffocating due to power outages, but I'd love to see an illustration.
-- DrCurry, Mar 25 2004


homely man squeezes through
*achoo!*
passes through
hot chick squeezes through
"Ew! My makeup!"
passes through, irritable
Business man squeezes through
*smear*
passes through
"Hey! Look at the clown!"
-- ghillie, Mar 25 2004


Darn, I missed hippo's anno...
-- ghillie, Mar 25 2004


It sounds like a great door for 2-dimensional people to go through ... wait they just slip under a regular door like "Flat Stanley" (children's book).
Add to the list of those who should use the alternate door to the right: all deliveries, persons wearing glasses or large earrings, persons carrying food or drink, persons who exceed a certain girth.
I think I'd take the alternate, easily identifiable door rather than read all the exceptions.
-- RooneDitoff, Mar 26 2004


Like the idea, but I keep reading this as a vaguely derogatory comment on Ms. Amos's private life.
[Sorry, UnaBubba, but Beverly Hills 90210 isn't on my radar.]
-- jutta, Mar 26 2004


[Gets UB's previously cryptic remark]

Oh geez...
-- Detly, Mar 28 2004



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