THE DOOR BALL
(a.k.a. the Slammer Jammer)

Here at the cabin, I have two wooden screen doors with springs that pull them shut. Before installing these Door Balls the doors would slam shut with a deafening ‘BANG!’ I used to cringe at the noise and cross my fingers hoping the door hinges weren’t going to tear out of the jamb.

Recently my Dad spent a few weeks with me at the cabin. Dad is a mechanical engineer and loves solving problems so I told him about the slamming door. He reached back into his memory and told me that my Great Grandpa Cooper had this same problem. Nearly a hundred years ago, Grandpa Cooper built a cabin on Fish Hook Lake in northern Minnesota. As a kid, Dad used to visit there in the summer. He remembered that Grandpa Cooper had attached a very simple gadget to his screen doors that kept them from slamming. After innumerable prototypes, I created the Door Ball, my 21^st century interpretation of what Grandpa Cooper used.

How the Door Ball Works
The Door Ball is a rubber ball that swings like a pendulum on a stiff wire. It is attached to the inside edge of the screen door. When the door is closing, centrifugal force makes the ball swing outward just enough to come between the door and the door jamb. It acts like a bumper. After the ball hits the door jamb the door bounces back an inch or two and then closes gently. It's an inexpensive and elegant solution to an irritating problem.

I’m really happy to have these Door Balls on my screen doors because they make me think of my Dad and Grandpa Cooper. And they remind me that simpler is often better. One of my favorite authors, Eric Sloane, put it this way: "It is a serious thing that so many of us have lost the ability to look backward intelligently, and that we think the only kind of progress concerns looking forward. The old ways have so much to offer besides age, but age, which is repulsive to the times we live in, is all some see in them."

This Door Ball kit includes everything you need to silence one door, including detailed installation instructions.