Von Duprin has been making panic bars and other panic hardware for almost 90 years. Since 1908, when Carl Prinzler, Henry DuPont, and the Vonnegut Hardware Company created and marketed the first working device. VonDuprin is actually a condensed version of their three names. Carl Prinzler, an Indianapolis hardware salesman, was the driving force behind the devices as by luck he missed an appointment in Chicago in 1903. This kept him from being in the Iroquois Theater when it burned down, killing 594 people. Since then Von Duprin has become known as the Cadillac of panic hardware.