Key to the Door Trivia Quiz

Answer: Olive wood

Most of the wood used in the manufacture of the interior of the temple was either cedar or cypress, and beautifully carved with cherubim, palm trees, buds, open flowers, and then inlaid with gold. In the inner sanctuary the doors were specifically made of olive wood, and carved and inlaid in the same manner.

The entire structure must have been very beautiful. The stone outer walls, and any stone used elsewhere in the construction, was hewn and carved in the quarry so that no sound of hammering or chiseling could be heard in the temple.

The two huge free-standing cherubim in the inner sanctuary were also manufactured from olive wood. All details of the construction methods and the materials used in the construction of this extraordinary building can be found in the Hebrew Bible in 1 Kings.

Answer: Camouflaged hidden door in the walls of a room

A jib door was usually constructed so that it lay flush with the walls of the room from which it led, and was decorated in the same fashion as the rest of the walls in that room, so that, unless one knew the door was there, it was not obvious at all. Jib doors were often used in the old historic manor homes of England in particular, and more often than not as entrances to the rooms where servants worked behind the scenes.

After all, if one is entertaining royalty at a great feast in the dining hall, it would be rather distracting to see flustered servants dashing to and fro in the background preparing dishes and organising wine and cutlery, old boy. Pip, pip, tallyho, for England and Saint George!

Answer: Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726) was not only a great physicist noted for his works on universal gravity and the laws of motion, he was also an astronomer, philosopher, theologian, and mathematician - and dabbled on the side in some rather unorthodox anti-religious practices of the time. However, he definitely didn't invent the pet door. Records of openings for pets into various buildings go back as far as ancient Cyprus and Egypt, some thousands of years before the common era. The writer Geoffrey Chaucer even mentions one such in his famous work "Canterbury Tales" in his section on "The Miller's Tale".

This is comical. Isaac Newton was said to have had two pet doors installed, one for his cat, and a smaller one for her kittens - quite overlooking the fact that the kittens would have automatically followed the mother cat through the larger opening. If that urban legend were true, then perhaps the great man was hit harder on the head by his apple than commonly realised. There were said to be two small holes of different sizes in the door of his residence at Trinity College, where he worked and studied, to back up this yarn.

Answer: Batwing doors

These kinds of doors can still be seen in many public bars today. They are commonly associated with the days of the American wild west, however, particularly in old western movies, where the doors are usually flung open to reveal either a gun-toting varmint or an avenging good guy. One had to be careful, of course, that they didn't recoil straight back on the flinger and knock him clean off his feet.

Answer: Music

This is a seven note rhythm that often occurs at the end of a light-hearted piece of music. It takes the form of "Dah-dahdah-dah-dah (slight pause) dah-dah!" if you wanted to tap this out for yourself. It's been recorded as far back as the old music hall days in various comical routines of the time. An early recording of same can be heard in a 1915 song known as "On the 5:15" by the entertainers Billy Murray and the American Quartet. Today it still crops up now and then in banjo music, in animated cartoons, in the occasional and very annoying car horn, and in the odd comical routine seen on television.

Interestingly, and sadly so, American prisoners-of-war were known to use the routine to verify the identity of fellow captives in adjoining cells, to see if they recognised the rhythm. If the correct two tap response was given to the first five taps, then the prisoners would communicate with each other in a special tapped out code. One word of warning however. It is inadvisable to use this musical rhythm in Mexico. There that tune, and its accompanying words, is considered a dreadful Spanish insult relating to one's mother, and most definitely cannot be reprinted in here.

Answer: Cathedrals

Many ancient and beautiful cathedrals had enormous front doors which were only opened during great spectacles and religious celebrations. For the use of the everyday folk who kept these magnificent structures operating smoothly however, a much smaller door, known as a wicket door, was incorporated into the larger door design to allow for quick and easy access.

Otherwise, several people were often required to open the larger doors, such was their weight and size. How appropriate that wicket doors were used on edifices dealing with issues of the wicked. What an irresistible pun. Today, examples of the modern version of the wicket door can be seen on large garages, or on hangars at airfields.

They serve the same purpose, but are far less historically appealing.

Answer: Stables

Dutch doors are doors on the entrances of horse stalls. The top half of the door can be opened separately from the bottom half, to allow the horses to be fed. The bottom half of the door remains securely shut during this process to stop Neddy from taking off and bolting down the road, as any self-respecting horse would attempt to do.

Answer: Pocket doors

Pocket doors are designed so that they slide between two wall panels, and thereby disappear from sight. These present a very tidy opening for some areas, which would otherwise be marred by the normal latching back of an entrance door. Their advantage is their visual appeal and the extra amount of useable space they allow.

Their disadvantage, learned by sad experience, is that if they become stuck, sometimes half the jolly wall has to be removed to access them for repair purposes. This has been overcome to a degree by sliding doors, known as open-pocket doors, which remain visible on one side of the wall, but not on the other.

These are rather unsightly however, and still are prone to getting stuck, usually at the most inconvenient times.

Answer: At a restaurant in Times Square, New York

The first patent for a revolving door was granted to a German designer, H. Bockhacker, in 1881. It was Theophilus van Kannel of Philadelphia, however, whose patent was granted in the United States in 1888, that would introduce the production of these dizzying doors. This came about in due course in 1899 with the installation of the world's first revolving door at Rector's restaurant in Times Square.

The disadvantages of a poorly designed revolving door can see one trapped in same like an unfortunate goldfish, but the advantages of an efficiently working spinning door outweigh this. They're energy efficient and prevent the onslaught of cold wintry drafts, which in turn lowers the costs of interior heating. They allow many people to pass in and out of large buildings without tripping over each other, they can be designed for security purposes to allow only one person at a time into restricted areas, they block out external noise, they can't be blown open in strong winds, and they're quite visually appealing. They are, however, a minefield for mothers with prams, and those people who use a wheelchair for mobility purposes, so in these cases, a side door that opens normally is usually installed as well.

Comically so, in most countries that have right hand side of the road drivers, revolving doors open counter-clockwise. In countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, with left hand side of the road drivers, the doors open in a clockwise fashion. Britain, however, just to make things even more confusing, has revolving doors that can go in either direction, so in that country you won't know if you're coming or going.

Answer: NASA Vehicle Assembly Building

Doesn't that put the most amazing image in your mind - newly constructed enormous rocket ships slowly emerging from their nursery? NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building is located at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the United States. There are four of these giant doors and each one is 456 feet, or 139 metres high. Just to given you a comparison instance of their size, the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet or 93 metres high. NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building was used to manufacture the Apollo and Saturn spaceships and, following that, was used in conjunction with the Space Shuttle projects.