Now that the semester is ended I’m belatedly playing the Spring Thing games, but I’m at an impasse in The Empty Chamber and don’t want to resort to DEDUCE (which I think will give me the full solution).
So far, I’ve searched the room thoroughly, found and unlocked the box under the bed, read all the letters, and discovered a strange mechanism in the door handle. But I can’t seem to interact with the mechanism in any way, which seems like the most interesting line of inquiry now.
What methods of interaction have tried?
As Brian said. Also, deducing will not give the solution, so don’t be afraid to try it 
Mostly I can’t seem to find a noun that refers to that particular thing.
Examine keyhole, examine knob, turn knob, unlock door, lock door, open door, close door, ask Land about door/knob/keyhole, ask Bradfield about door/knob/keyhole, put screwdriver in keyhole, put lockpick in keyhole, put screwdriver in knob, put lockpick in knob, search knob, search keyhole
Trying to use the word MECHANISM just gives a parser error, and I can’t find any usable synonym for it.