This Day in History

On June 19th, 1931, Wilcox's Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut opened up a whole new world of technology, with the first automatic doors. Waitressing was never the same again. STANLEY WORKS

"Sunday Morning" Almanac: June 19th, 1931, 85 years ago today ... the day the door opened to a whole new world of technology.

That was the day the Stanley Works company installed the world's first automatic doors at Wilcox's Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut.

Placed between the kitchen and the dining room, the doors sprang open the moment a photoelectric eye detected a person's approach.

"Through the invention," wrote the Hartford Courant, "there is no longer need for waitresses to kick open doors or use their hands for anything other than carrying in the trays.

In a letter to Stanley Works, the restaurant's president wrote, "They are one of the most satisfactory pieces of equipment which we have ever installed ... and have certainly speeded up the service of our waitresses."

Our popular culture has taken note of all these automatic doors, albeit with an occasional bit of skepticism: Automatic doors greeted visitors to "Jurassic Park," while a seemingly malevolent door pinned Steve Carell as agent Maxwell Smart in the film, "Get Smart."

See more of this article and other links and video, here:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/almanac-the-first-automatic-door/