Apartment Key

[misty]

VERY OFF TOPIC
I was thinking more of a logical explanation for the complete waste of resources.
The bit where you say "we cut it once a week in the summer"
"What do you do with the clippings then eat them?"
"Nah we throw them away".
"Hmmmm"
"What about this machine you use for cutting ; you only use it for about 18 hours a year ; do you buy one between several of you and share the expense?"
"Nah every house has one some have two"
"Hmmm"
He goes back to mother ship and falls about laughing telling his mates about the billion pound industry based on growing a bit of green stuff by your house that you cut 36 weeks in the year then throw away the clippings....

If you were smart you would explain to the little bald green men that the green stuff was actually replacement hair being grown, ready for transplant. It is dried out at certain times to cater for different colour requirements & regularly cut as the male of the species who generally requires the transplant prefers it short.
I'm sure Elon Musk could make a killing if he took some seeds & a few gallons of water on a scheduled trip to Mars.

[Alice Purjorick]

Thank you. Is the mortice sash lock the nearest equivalent to 5A's?
I'm still having trouble with the physics of that rectangular piece, which appears to protrude, on the end of the  lower latch. The strike plate does not look rounded & any angling of the metal appears minimal, although the image is not the best. Having played around with some doors in my house, I still can't determine if 5A would slam shut.
Can you explain in simple terms for someone from Venus?

Here we go then.
The rectangular piece does not protrude beyond the tip of the wedge. If it did you would never be able to shut door. The pointy bit of the latch taper has to slide along the striker plate to engage. Any sticky out bits will prevent that.
The type of lock assembly in 5A is a Rimlock. Rim and Mortice are just explanations of how the assembly is fitted to the door. Mortice goes inside the door whereas Rim is fitted on the outside of the door [note inside and outside refer to the door in this instance not to the dwelling]. The lock fitted to 5A has a dead bolt  [only operable by key from inside or outside the dwelling] and a spring latch which is operable by key only from outside and manually inside. The Sash lock I referenced was mainly to show how the spring latch head can be fabricated and the two main components ie a Sash lock is one that has a dead bolt [key operated] plus a spring latch operable by handle on either side of the door A spring latch will always have an inclined face on the tongue bit to work with the striker plate. It works like any old wedge in changing direction of movement by mechanical advantage. Like raising your sideboard by banging wedges under the feet but in this instance to shove the latch tongue back inside the housing. What the tongue bit looks like in detail doesn't matter. It must have a taper or radius to operate the spring and there must be nothing protruding beyond the thin end of the wedge or the bleeding door will never shut at all. In short if the latch has a taper it is a spring latch other wise there is no reason for the taper.
There is nothing clever or complicated about it. Nor nefarious come to that bearing in mind the security of the apartment was arranged when it was first built which was before the world at large realised the designers were building in booby traps to catch out two people, no one had ever heard of at the time, about 10 years later...

[Alice Purjorick]

If you were smart you would explain to the little bald green men that the green stuff was actually replacement hair being grown, ready for transplant. It is dried out at certain times to cater for different colour requirements & regularly cut as the male of the species who generally requires the transplant prefers it short.
I'm sure Elon Musk could make a killing if he took some seeds & a few gallons of water on a scheduled trip to Mars.

They are from Mars' northern hemisphere. The one I met was from the southern hemisphere and he was red.

[misty]

Here we go then.
The rectangular piece does not protrude beyond the tip of the wedge. If it did you would never be able to shut door. The pointy bit of the latch taper has to slide along the striker plate to engage. Any sticky out bits will prevent that.
The type of lock assembly in 5A is a Rimlock. Rim and Mortice are just explanations of how the assembly is fitted to the door. Mortice goes inside the door whereas Rim is fitted on the outside of the door [note inside and outside refer to the door in this instance not to the dwelling]. The lock fitted to 5A has a dead bolt  [only operable by key from inside or outside the dwelling] and a spring latch which is operable by key only from outside and manually inside. The Sash lock I referenced was mainly to show how the spring latch head can be fabricated and the two main components ie a Sash lock is one that has a dead bolt [key operated] plus a spring latch operable by handle on either side of the door A spring latch will always have an inclined face on the tongue bit to work with the striker plate. It works like any old wedge in changing direction of movement by mechanical advantage. Like raising your sideboard by banging wedges under the feet but in this instance to shove the latch tongue back inside the housing. What the tongue bit looks like in detail doesn't matter. It must have a taper or radius to operate the spring and there must be nothing protruding beyond the thin end of the wedge or the bleeding door will never shut at all. In short if the latch has a taper it is a spring latch other wise there is no reason for the taper.
There is nothing clever or complicated about it. Nor nefarious come to that bearing in mind the security of the apartment was arranged when it was first built which was before the world at large realised the designers were building in booby traps to catch out two people, no one had ever heard of at the time, about 10 years later...

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain. I'm still not sure about the need for that rectangular part, though.

[Alice Purjorick]

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain. I'm still not sure about the need for that rectangular part, though.

Sorry I clearly didn't make myself clear ho ho.
It is merely a function of how the latch is fabricated. A spring latch must have a sloping face and a flat face otherwise it will not work. How you as the fabricator achieve that is pretty much up to you unless the code is specific. I can think of about half a dozen ways to do it.
Being a sad old bustard I looked at the latches on my external doors today, all six of them, seven if you throw in the garage personnel door, look like the latch tongue on apartment 5A which is no real surprise.
It is a something and nothing issue that we the forum have made 13 pages out of. It is nothing sinister, unusual or incompetent.
Can we talk about Martians now please? 

[Robittybob1]

Sorry I clearly didn't make myself clear ho ho.
It is merely a function of how the latch is fabricated. A spring latch must have a sloping face and a flat face otherwise it will not work. How you as the fabricator achieve that is pretty much up to you unless the code is specific. I can think of about half a dozen ways to do it.
Being a sad old bustard I looked at the latches on my external doors today, all six of them, seven if you throw in the garage personnel door, look like the latch tongue on apartment 5A which is no real surprise.
It is a something and nothing issue that we the forum have made 13 pages out of. It is nothing sinister, unusual or incompetent.
Can we talk about Martians now please? 

Would you post a photo of the garage personnel door please?

[G-Unit]

Russell said;

We were conscious that, that, erm, if you, you only do one lock on the main door then it can be opened from the inside but if you double lock it then, then, then you need the key to get in or out”.
https://mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/RUSSELL-OBRIEN_ROGATORY.htm

So their daughter was completely locked in but Madeleine wasn't unless her parents dead locked their door.

[Alice Purjorick]

Would you post a photo of the garage personnel door please?

Gimme a bucket of sand and I'll sing you the desert song.
That's old English for "No Chance".

[G-Unit]

Gimme a bucket of sand and I'll sing you the desert song.
That's old English for "No Chance".

Do you remember the sand dance? Weird I always thought.

[Robittybob1]

Gimme a bucket of sand and I'll sing you the desert song.
That's old English for "No Chance".

I could bring you a truck load if that will help.

[Robittybob1]

https://youtu.be/LXpFm-kDFWk?t=2621

Since this is about the Key I'll repost it here for  reference too.
The images are such poor quality I can't make out what I'm seeing.

I am convinced we are looking at apartment 5A.  So the screw is on the door jamb and not on the door.  That only makes sense if the door will slam shut without a key, or does the key have to be inserted then you could slam it shut??

[Robittybob1]

Easy old stuff with one of these:
"Double cylinder anti lockout lock" and it looks like this:
http://www.saundersonsecurity.co.uk/acatalog/info_E_DZ_31_31_NP.html

There are innocent explanations for most things.

[Robittybob1]

This is the proof that there is such a thing and from the description of how the doors on the apartments work I'd say they were fitted with anti-lockout locks on their front doors.