Pec. 20.] 



lifPROVED FARM GATES. 



OOf\ 



Ij'jj 



apart, and lield against the posts by guides, which allow of their easy work- 

 ing. Attaclied by bolts to the upper outward corner arc two light strips of 

 boards, one on each side, nnd two othei-s in the center. These strips arc 

 hinged to posts at the bottom in the EP.nic way they arc at the top to the 

 g.ite, and when tlic gate is shut thej' stand at an angle witli tlie gate like 

 brac-js, and wlien tlie gate is to be opened it lifts upon tlicse centers, and 

 passes over and stands alongside of the fence in a straiglit line. Such 

 gates are very convenient in case of snow, as they lift up riglit out of the 

 drift, so as to allow a passage witiiont shoveling. "Wiieu closed, the two 

 gates are fastened togetlier by hooks or bolts, or any convenient fastening. 

 As they are not hinged to the posts, these may bo made quite liglit. 



Another plan of a gate, to open without swinging, is to suspend it upon 

 rollers running upon a rail overhead. Some one has improved upon this 

 plan to make the gate openable by a person driving up in a wagon. This 

 is done by lifting the gate at the front end by a lever, which changes tlie 

 level of the railway -bar upon which tiic gate hangs, so that it roils back by 

 its own gravity. The principle will be understood by looking at any gate 

 made to rim off on rollers upon a bar above the top, by supposing one end 

 of tlie bar raised, when the gate rolls down. A touch of another lever, as 

 the wagon passes, reverses the position of the bar, and the gate rolls back 

 aijain to its closed position. 



The great objection to this, and almost all the plans for opening gates from 

 the wagon, without alighting, is the unsightly appearance of the gallows- 

 franie necessary to support the levers, ropes, and ptdlcys. 



"We have seen gates M-hich opened by the weight of the wagon passing 

 over a bar, and shutting it by another touch of a bar on tlie other side. 

 There is a good deal of machinery to tliis plan, as well as to nearly all of 

 the contrivances to open and shut gates without labor, and the most of them 

 are very liable to fail of working easily. 



The most simple one of the kind, ai;d, so far as we could jiulgc from a 

 sinMe examination, the least liable to get out of working order, was one ex- 

 hibited at the New York State Fair of ISOO by Jasper Johnson, of Genesee 

 County. One of the greatest advantages of this invention is, that it can be 

 api)lied to gates already in use, so that one can bo opened by a person in u 

 wagon and shut as he passes tb.rougli without stopping. 



Any erection that will sustain a single cord upon each side, and a bar of 

 iron about four feet long, of the size of an ordinary crowbar, and one or 

 two small rods, comprises all that need be added to any gate to fix it for 

 this convenient way of opening. This bar of iron is made in ft i)cculiar 

 form, and attached to the gate-post by ii loose joint at one end, wliiio the 

 other works in a long staple attached to the gate. Its position is moved by 

 pulling the cord, ami its specific gravity being thus changed, throws the. 

 "•ate open, and shuts it by another pull nt the same cord, or the otlier one, 

 al the jierson drives through. The attachment certainly is u very cheap 

 one, and its operation was entirely sati^factory. 



