chemistry

Sliding bookcase

Sliding bookcase is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sliding bookcase rather than just read about it. In short: A sliding bookcase, bookcase door or Murphy door a registered trademark, is a wooden shelf or cabinet for bound volumes that is designed to move on rollers, a track, hinges, or another mechanism and is typically used to hide the presence of a secret room or space. Sliding bookcases were used in the United States during prohibition to hide rooms or spaces containing liquor.

Key takeaways

Sliding bookcase belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sliding bookcase to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sliding bookcase from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A sliding bookcase, bookcase door or Murphy door a registered trademark, is a wooden shelf or cabinet for bound volumes that is designed to move on rollers, a track, hinges, or another mechanism and is typically used to hide the presence of a secret room or space. Sliding bookcases were used in the United States during prohibition to hide rooms or spaces containing liquor. They have also been used to conceal entrances to speakeasy bars and marijuana-growing operations. People have hidden in secret rooms concealed by sliding bookcases to escape detection from a government or police force. Safe rooms, also known as panic rooms, may be concealed by sliding bookcases. Sliding bookcases may be designed to slide and to swing open using hinges. Sliding bookcases have been portrayed in many fictional works.

Places with sliding bookcases Sliding bookcases have been installed by homeowners and builders.

Anne Frank House

During World War II at the Anne Frank House, Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the 17th-century canal house, known as the Secret Annex (Dutch: Achterhuis). The rooms were concealed by a movable, sliding bookcase built by Johan Voskuijl. Anne Frank did not survive the war, but in 1947 her wartime diary was published.

Bars in the United States

California The Speakeasy was a theater and club experience in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco that occurred in January-March 2013 that included the feature of a sliding bookcase that led to "Club 23", a bar and casino parlor. Club 23 was opened after the show, and only "select few patrons" were allowed entrance. Additional entrances included two fake walls. Bourbon & Branch is a speakeasy-themed bar in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood that has a hinged bookcase that leads to their library. A password is required to gain entry to the bar, and a separate one is required to gain entry to the library. Marianne's, a bar in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, has a sliding bookcase that leads to a secretive second bar in the establishment named Marianne.

Other states The Parlour, a bar in Jacksonville, Florida, has an entrance which is concealed by a sliding bookcase. It also has an unmarked alley door that has a black awning. The Back Room in New York City has a second "hidden" bar within it concealed by a sliding bookcase. The Firehouse Hostel and Lounge in Austin, Texas, has a sliding bookcase that leads to the bar. The bar specializes in cocktails that were consumed during the Prohibition-era, including one named The Last Word, a gin-based cocktail.

Bredlau Castle The Bredlau Castle in Lake Elsinore, California has a sliding bookcase that reveals an area used to hide liquor during prohibition in the United States.

Hotels The J.W. Marriott luxury hotel in Puxi's Tomorrow Square, Shanghai, China has a sliding bookcase on its executive floor that leads to the building's rooftop.

Pixar Pixar's location in Emeryville, California, had a hidden room hidden by a sliding bookcase. It was initially discovered by Pixar animator Andrew Gordon, who opened a hatch door in his office that revealed a hidden room that was designed to provide maintenance workers "access to a portion of the building's ventilation system". Gordon eventually converted the room into a full bar with furniture and carpet, and added a camera in the office aimed at the door to provide warning about anyone approaching. The space was called "Lucky 7 Lounge" and the "Love Lounge". The sliding bookcase was made operational by "a switch hidden in a bust of Shakespeare". The hidden room is shown on the DVD of Toy Story 3 as a bonus feature, which is narrated by Gordon.

In fiction Sliding bookcases have been a part of many fictional works. Libraries in fiction have sometimes been characterized as existent in secret rooms, hidden by sliding bookcases. A character withdrawing a specific book or moving a statuette as the hidden trigger to open a sliding bookcase is a cliché of mystery stories set in old haunted houses. The Batman television series had a sliding bookcase that was activated by a hidden switch located inside of a bust of Shakespeare. When the bookcase slid open, the Batpoles that the actors slid down to go to the Batcave were revealed.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sliding bookcase

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sliding bookcase claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sliding bookcase before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sliding bookcase ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sliding bookcase

In research: Sliding bookcase appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sliding bookcase in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sliding bookcase is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Architectural elements, Cabinets (furniture), Deception, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sliding bookcase outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Sliding bookcase in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sliding bookcase means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sliding bookcase out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sliding bookcase in simple terms?

Why does Sliding bookcase matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sliding bookcase?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sliding bookcase.