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I could jump from the window and survive but this is not going to go well in a fire.
If you have a shirtwaist you can fold it into a triangle and try to glide to safety as you escape the factory.
We don’t make shirtwaists any more, so locking workers in factories is now perfectly safe! (And they say we don’t learn from history.)
If they can't ever go home, they'll have no choice but to keep working! Just think of the profits... ONLY think of the profits
I've lived in one of these places. You are very cautious about where your keys are.
So this one doesn't look normal to me. What does look normal is a euro cylinder. You can leave a key on the inside with it locked, if the key is inserted but not turned you can still use a key from the other side. If the key is turned slightly, a key from the other side won't work.
If you are really concerned about getting locked in, you can get euro cylinders with a thumb turn on one side and key on the other.
What makes them great is to change the cylinder you open the door, remove one screw, put in the key and rotate about 20 degrees and the whole thing slides out, takes about 5mins to change a lock. Cheapest low security go for about £10 all the way to high security special profiles for ~£80
If you are really concerned about getting locked in, you can get euro cylinders with a thumb turn on one side and key on the other.
That is exactly what I would do if it was my door. The prevalence of this dangerous variety is the subject of my mild fury.
Exactly. Although proper cylinders can easily exceed the 80 pounds threshold. And I would not recommend the 10 pound version to lock in anything of value...
I mean you can get an extra key and leave it in the door if it bothers you that much? Some american doors have removable lock latches that are just a key with a funky head on them.
Someone ITT said the key interferes with someone trying to unlock the door from the other side, but you cant just push the key through? How does that work?
Most locks can't fit two keys at the same time, if they are both aligned with the resting position, one can push the other out, but if the inserted key is slightly turned, it resists and stops the other key from entering fully.
Also thieves apparently have tools to turn the inside key from the outside and unlock the door.
Normal in UK residential, this style used on every uPVC door I've ever seen. Often the windows have (simpler) keyed locks also.
I would hope that the lock disengeges when opened from the inside.
It doesn’t, because the handle and locking latch are separate mechanisms.
That sounds like a fire code violation.
If this was the US, but it's not
Other countries have fire codes.
In Australia it would also be a violation.
Ours doesn’t. We keep a key near each door.
This worried me at first but I just started always carrying keys and now I don't even really think about it
I have been given a key, but this is still an unnecessary inconvenience in an emergency.
These exist to double lock from inside when going to bed to feel safer. I don't use this feature but some do, my in-laws for example.
Add a couple of bolts?
It still requires to be able to be opened from outside with the key. But you aren't far off.. my door has perimeter sliding bolts that activate when double locking.
The requirement is that
- The door should be lockable and unlockable from both the inside and the outside, and
- If the door is locked from the inside, it should not be unlockable from outside, right?
So you can have a door with a lock on the outside and a separate bolt / latch (or two) on the inside. There is a risk that someone with a duplicate key can lock you in from outside (a common prank) so some versions have a lever on the inside that can unlock the door even if it is locked from outside.
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2026
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