194. 



Wire Field Gates, 



greatest strength, will sustain without injury four or five times 

 the pull to which, in gates, they have ever any chance of being 

 exposed. Of the simplest and cheapest of these, which is merely 

 the skeleton of the more expensive and complex one, the adjoin- 

 ing is a representation. 



Fig. 35. represents a gate 9 ft. long, and 13 ft. in height. The 

 framing (ah c d) is of light bar iron, put together in the ordinary 

 way; ef^ gJi, k I are straps of light iron fastened at the extremi- 



35 



a ;f h i 



ties by rivets to the upper and lower rails, which they, amongst 

 other things, serve to tie together. The whole of the other fill- 

 ings up consist of wire or rod iron, about the thickness of a 

 goose quill, ac, db are diagonals for the purpose of maintaining 

 the gate in a rectangular form, a q b \s sl back stay or brace for 

 a b, to prevent it from bending downwards by pressure. It 

 passes through punched holes in the straps ej", g k, and k I, so 

 that a b is stiffened by it at the three points e, g, and Jc. In like 

 manner, d r c is a back stay similarly arranged in reference to 

 d c, to prevent it from yielding upwards. The three straps, ef, 

 g h, and k I, connect the two I'ods together, and give each of 

 them the supporting power of both back stays either way : that 

 is, a b, as already shown, is prevented yielding downwards by 

 its own proper back stay a q b, and it is prevented yielding up- 

 wards by the back stay of d c, that is, dr c; and so with d c, 

 whose depression is pi-evented by the stay a q b, to which it is 

 tied by the straps. So, in like manner, with reference to the ends 

 of the gate, the stays a t d and b s c come into operation. Now 

 these, when combined as in^/%. 35., give a system of universal 

 bracing, such as that the framing, strengthened by them, can 

 be disshaped by no force short of one of sufficient power to 

 lengthen out the wires longitudinally. They form a gate, not 

 adequate, certainly, for the retention of lambs or pigs without 

 some additional wires, but which will keep in cattle of every sort, 

 its largest apertures being only a triangle 1 5 in. by 9 in. An}'' 

 sort of lock or hanging may be used which seems expedient. 

 When a gate is suddenly shut, it will be observed to tremble and 

 vibrate violently for some seconds, at the fore part or lower part 

 farthest from the crook end. This, like every other kind of 

 concussion, is of course injurious to the structure of the gate. 



