Mondo Knows Facts

Queue barriers use a spring loaded belt cassette

A spiral spring winds as the belt pulls out and rewinds it on release The head of the post holds a cassette with a coiled spring and a spool of webbing, and a centrifugal brake slows the retraction so the belt does not whip back. A clip on the end hooks into the next post. The layout of a switchback queue is designed so people cannot easily step out of line and so the line fits a small floor area. It sits in Mondo's everyday life collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

US Patent and Trademark Office

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: queues, design, retail

Queue barriers use a spring loaded belt cassette: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
A spiral spring winds as the belt pulls out and rewinds it on release. The figure is taken from US Patent and Trademark Office, 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.