Pictured left: the Magic-Eye Doors, a pair of automatic doors facing Mass Ave on MIT’s Building 7.
Though now triggered by foot-pads, if you look closely, you can still see the glass “eyes” mounted on either side.
Horace H. Raymond worked in Connecticut as an engineer for the tool and hardware manufacture then called Stanley Works. He designed the first model of an optic device triggering the opening of an automatic door. He patented his invention in 1934 and installed his first set of magic doors in a Connecticut restaurant for the benefit of waiters carrying plates of food and drink.
The MIT pair is another of the earliest set of automatic doors, install by the university in its main entrance in the 1930s or 40s.
More? Raymond’s grandson, J.D. Heinzmann, helped to develop the segway, and liked to talk about his grandfather.
Looking Backward 