AN INGENIOUS FIELD-GATE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 421, 9 December 1911, Page 6

AN INGENIOUS FIELD-GATE.

Those who live, move, and have their being upon the land are fully cognisant of the drawbacks of the present type of gate. In a short time after it has been hung, the weight of the swinging section causes the gate to droop at the shutting end, so that it will not readily close, and, indeed may rqeuire lifting in order to engage with the catch. Under these circumstances the gate becomes an endless source of worry and expense. Recently, however, these inherent disadvantages have been ingeniously overcome by a simple invention. In this device there is a top-rail which runs right through, and on the under side of the shutting post is a small roller which runs on to a bracket on the shuttingpost itself, thus taking up the whole weight of the gate when it is closed. The gate is secured by a spring-catch which passes through a slot in the rail and drops into a notch in the lower arm of the same bracket or staple. In the usual type of gate, moreover, the wet, penetrating the mortices, rots the woodwork, thereby accentuating the drooping tendency of the gat". In this new device there are no mortices or joints, so that when it is coated with some preservative such as solignum, decomposition of the wood is impossible, and it will last for years. In a hunting district or upon a large farm there is the additional advantage that it can be operated by a person on horseback. The lever of the spring-catch projects upwards j sufficiently to enable the rider to lean I over and open or shut the gate with j ease, this avoidance of dismounting being a feature that cannot fail to be 1 appreciated. On those farms abut- j ting on a railway track, cattle losses j through the slock straying on to the j line and being cut up by passing j trains, owing to a gate being difficult j to shut and thus left unfastened, < can be obviated.