132 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



A patent for an improved gate was also granted to W. G. Phillips, of Newport, Delaware, 

 in March, 1855. 



The nature of the invention consists in providing the gate-post or pivot and the platform 

 with springs, so arranged that a vehicle passing on to the platform will press upon a spring, 

 and so operate the gate as to allow the vehicle to pass 'through, and in going from the plat- 

 form on the opposite side, another spring is pressed by the carnage, which causes the gate 

 to close. 



An automaton gate, which is highly recommended, has recently been invented by Mr. C. Wine- 

 gar, of Union Springs, New York. 



This contrivance, not unlike a clock, consists of two principal parts, the running and regu- 

 lating parts. A weight which opens and shuts the gate is contained in a tall box fixed at the 

 side of the gate, resembling in external appearance a large post. The weight in descending 

 turns a crank. A rod placed between this crank and the gate, and connected to each, receives 

 by this means a reciprocating motion, and would open and shut the gate in rapid succession 

 until the weight reaches the ground, were its motion not controlled by a latch which fastens 

 it shut when it strikes the post, or which fastens it open, as soon as it reaches a smaller post 

 placed at the proper point for this purpose. 



The opening and shutting is effected from the carriage or saddle by simply giving a slight 

 pull or jerk to a loop suspended from the arm of a tall post a short distance from the gate. 

 A wire, extending from this loop to the hinge-post, and thence across the top of the gate to 

 the latch, instantly sets it free whenever a slight pull is given, and the crank and rod imme- 

 diately draw it open, where it is retained by the latch. On passing through, the loop is pulled 

 on the other side, loosening the latch again, and causing the gate immediately to close. By 

 placing the two tall posts with the loops sufficiently distant from the gate, the opening may 

 be accomplished at any desired time before arriving there, an increased length of the wire 

 being all that is required. As an ordinary weight will move the gate about fifty times, all 

 that is commonly necessary is to wind it up regularly once a week. In extreme cases, a 

 workman who goes regularly to his work each morning may be employed to raise the weight 

 as he passes, requiring only a few seconds. 



Improved Method of Building Stone Houses. 



MR. L. P. BALL, of Worcester, Massachusetts, in a communication to the New England 

 Farmer, calls attention to a new method of constructing houses, recently introduced into New 

 England. He says 



Last year (1854) a stone machine shop, 400 feet long, 40 feet wide, and two stories high, 

 with walls 21 inches thick, was built in Worcester of a kind of slate in the following manner: 

 The entire mass of stone blasted from the ledge was carried to the building, the nature of the 

 ledge being such that a very large portion of the stone obtained by blasting was in small 

 pieces ; into the mortar, which was made of lime and coarse sand, were put, and intimately 

 mixed with it, all the small chips and fragments. All the larger stones were reserved for the 

 process of filling in. The walls were made by filling the mortar into boxes, made by placing 

 planks outside and inside of the wall, a distance apart of the desired thickness of the wall. 

 These planks are kept in their places by plumb straight-edges of sufficient strength, placed 

 and fastened upon the outside of the planks. When the planks have been thus properly dis- 

 posed in their places to a height of three or four feet above the foundation, the mortar, in a 

 very plastic state is brought from the mortar-bed in hods, and poured into the space between 

 the planks. Into this soft, yielding mass were disposed all the larger stones in such a man- 

 ner as to make the wall one solid mass of mortar and stone. These processes of alternately 

 filling with mortar and larger stones are repeated until the mould is full. 



The mould or planks forming the wall are allowed to remain upon the walls until the mor- 

 tar has set, say twenty-four hours or more, according to the quality of the mortar ; and are 

 then removed and reset, and all the foregoing operations repeated until the walls of the build- 

 ing are completed. The windows and door-frames are made and set in the same manner as 

 they are for brick buildings ; over the doors and windows is put a wood or stone lintel to hold 



