DOOR, the movable panel by which the opening to an apartment, closet, or passage is closed. Doors are made of wood, iron, bronze, or stone. When moving horizontally on hinges, they are called swing-doors; when two such are used to close one opening, they are are those which move on rollers, and may be pushed aside. A jib-door is one which is concealed as much as possible when shut. A trap-door is one which opens vertically over ft horizontal opening, as a hole in a floor, etc. When a small door closes an opening cut in a larger one, it is usually called a wicket.
Doors are commonly made of wood, and these we shall first describe. The most simply made door is constructed of several boards joined together at their edges by a rebate, or a plowed and tongued groove (see CARPENTRY); these are held together by a transverse 1li9ce.sinwly riailed.to each board; thisis called a ledge, and the door thus made, a /edge-ThiOr:.;‘,111ese are conmienly ,Workshops, stabling, etc.; but when durability and appearance are to be combined, a stout frame is first made, its parts joined together by mortise and tenon. See CARPENTRY. This frame haS one or more openings—usually four—which are filled with thin pieces called panels, fitted into grooves Plowed in the edges of the frame. The horizontal pieces of the frame are, according to their position, called the top-rail, bottom-rail, lock-rail, and frieze-rail. The lock-rail is that to which the lock is fixed, the frieze-rail intermediate
between the middle and top-rail in large doors. The extreme vertical parts of the frame to which the rails are fixed are called stiles, and the intermediate vertical part, a mount ing. Doors are named one, two, four, six, etc., paneled doors, and are further described by the kind of molding which surrounds the panel, and from the description of panel. The main object of framing, besides appearance, is to counteract the tendency of the wood to warp, by binding the different parts together with pieces having their fibers at right angles to each other.
In many old buildings, the outer, and even some inner doors are made of massive oaken planks, bound together with ornamental iron straps. Iron doors are chiefly used to intercept fire. For this purpose, they are best made of wrought iron, with double sides. Bronze doors are sometimes used for churches and other large buildings. They are usually ornamented with castings in high and low relief. Those of the baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, by Ghiberti, and the pantheon of Rome, are among the most celebrated examples. A few examples of marble doors exist, chiefly in cemeteries and some Belgian churches.