What Was the Purpose of Saloon Doors?

The function of a doorway is to allow people to pass through a wall.

门的功能是让人们穿过墙。

The function of a door is to seal that aperture, providing visual and sonic privacy, protection from the elements and denying access to people who are not supposed to pass through that wall.

门的功能是封闭这个孔，提供视觉和声音隐私，保护免受元素的影响，并拒绝那些不应该穿过这堵墙的人进入。

Given those truths saloon doors, of the sort seen in every Western movie, make little sense. Yet we know they existed thanks to not just Hollywood, whose depictions can be suspect, but the actual architectural record. The question is, what was their purpose?

考虑到这些事实，每一部西方电影中都会出现的那种酒吧门就没有什么意义了。然而，我们知道它们的存在不仅要归功于好莱坞，其预防措施可能令人怀疑，而且还要归功于实际的建筑记录。问题是他们的目的是什么

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Incredibly dumb and obviously specious theories abound on the internet, and with no Saloon Door Authority to set the record straight, all we can do is use our observation skills as designers to deduce their intended function.

互联网上充斥着令人难以置信的愚蠢和明显似是而非的理论，没有沙龙门管理局来澄清事实，我们所能做的就是使用我们作为设计师的观察技巧来推断它们的预期功能。

Saloon doors, also known as batwing doors, can be paneled, louvered or planked. But regardless of their construction they consistently have two defining physical characteristics:

轿车门，也被称为蝙蝠翼门，可以镶板，百叶窗或木板。但无论它们的构造如何，它们始终具有两个定义性的物理特征：

1) They do not extend all the way to the floor nor the top of the doorjamb, but instead block the doorway at roughly torso height.

1)它们不会一直延伸到地板或门框的顶部，而是在大约躯干的高度挡住门口。

2) They feature bi-directional hinges.

2)它们具有双向铰链。

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Let's look at characteristic #1 first, and what that says about the door's function. Since they do not seal the doorway, they provide little protection from the elements and are unsuitable for denying access. (Saloons that had closing times were locked after hours using an additional set of outer, shutter-like doors.)

让我们先来看看特征1，以及它对门的功能有什么说明。由于它们不密封门口，它们几乎不能提供保护，不适合拒绝进入。（有关门时间的酒吧在下班后会用一套额外的百叶窗式外门上锁。）

What they do provide, most obviously, is a modest visual barrier. Nineteenth-century saloons were places for men to consume alcohol, gamble and hire prostitutes, all pursuits that were at odds with religious and temperance movements of the time. We can conclude that barring passersby from getting an unwelcome eyeful of these sins--while still allowing the sound to pass through, to tempt the intemperate--was one goal of saloon doors.

最明显的是，它们确实提供了一个适度的视觉障碍。十九世纪的酒吧是男人喝酒、赌博和招妓的地方，所有这些追求都与当时的宗教和禁酒运动不一致。我们可以得出这样的结论：阻止路人看到这些不受欢迎的罪恶--同时仍然允许声音通过，诱惑那些放纵的人--是酒吧门的目标之一。

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Why not, then, just have a full door? One explanation might be to save on materials, but that seems untrue; if the sole purpose of the door is to block the view, the outer doors would simply be used and no saloon doors would be installed at all.

那么，为什么不干脆开一扇完整的门呢？一种解释可能是节省材料，但这似乎是不真实的;如果门的唯一目的是阻挡视线，那么就只会使用外门，根本不会安装沙龙门。

I think the explanation lies with characteristic #2. 

我认为解释在于特征#2。

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Saloon doors feature bi-directional hinges and no door handle--as do the doors to the kitchen of every restaurant I've ever worked in. The purpose of a door with a bi-directional hinge is to allow people whose hands are encumbered to easily pass through them, regardless of whether they're going in or out. If the door is reduced in surface area and split vertically in half, therefore greatly reducing the weight, it makes it even easier to push through.

沙龙门的特点是双向铰链，没有门把手--我工作过的每一家餐馆的厨房门都是如此。双向铰链门的目的是让那些手被阻碍的人很容易通过，不管他们是进去还是出去。如果门的表面积减少，并垂直一分为二，从而大大减轻了重量，它使它更容易推动通过。

Coupled with a need to provide a visual barrier to licentiousness, if we think of a saloon needing to be regularly restocked by someone carrying crates of bottles in and out, and patronized by cowboys who might prefer to carry their gear inside rather than leave it sitting outside on a horse without an alarm system, then saloon doors make good sense. I believe these were an early stab at UX.

再加上需要提供一个视觉屏障来阻止放荡，如果我们想到一个酒吧需要有人定期携带成箱的瓶子进出，并由牛仔光顾，他们可能更喜欢把他们的装备带到里面，而不是把它放在外面没有警报系统的马背上，那么酒吧门就很有意义了。我相信这是UX的早期尝试。