Mondo Knows Facts

A deadbolt has no spring, unlike a door latch

The latch slides back by spring and bevels to close, but the bolt does not A latch has a bevelled nose and a spring, so it retracts as the door swings shut and clicks behind you. A deadbolt is square-ended, thrown only by the key or thumb turn, and cannot be slipped with a card. Most front doors combine a latch for convenience with a deadbolt for security. It sits in Mondo's everyday life collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

A deadbolt has no spring, unlike a door latch, photograph
Library of Congress ยท Public domain (Library of Congress) ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: locks, doors, security

A deadbolt has no spring, unlike a door latch: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
The latch slides back by spring and bevels to close, but the bolt does not. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a everyday life fact?
Yes. It sits on the Everyday Life shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.