Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/436

 ^?^^ 842 ^-^^ "-=^^5^ U— ^"^ "^, ^ -^ ^^^^^<=^:..,^^ ^^ "^=^5^ ^^^ ^^ , >>^ ' "^=^^ _ — . 843 412 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. hanging post is continued down nine inches at bottom, so as to form a jjiyot for working in a socket fixed in a stone ; and up, so as to turn in a liook. The shutting post admits of the application of anv description of fastening ; one of the best for a cattle-yard, to which this gate is particularly adapted, is a spring latch, which shuts into a recess in the falling post, as seen in the figure. These gates are manufactured in the workshops of the inventor, at Catrine, and the prime cost, in 1831, was found to be about 30s. 829. Cottain and HallenS Iron Field Gate, fig. 842, is made of wrought iron, the hori- zontal bars and braces being made of flat bar iron, riveted together at every intersec- tion, in order to prevent the swagging or sinking of the head or falling style. The lower rails are placed suf- ficiently close together to prevent pigs and lambs from passing through between them. This gate can be supplied, singly, for 26s. each, and by the dozen 10 per cent lower. Mr. Cottam considers this gate stronger, more durable, and far more economical, than any gate which can be made of wood. 830. The Closebum Field Gate is the invention of C. J. Stuart Menteath, Esq., and of which he has lately sent us a sketch, fig. 843. The material is timber ; the construction is very light and strong, and so economical that it may be made in some parts of the country, where young fir trees are abun- dant, for 7s. When the head sinks, it is raised by the simple operation of adding another washer be- tween the key, and that which retains the hook of the upper part of the hang- ing style at a. The fasten- ing latch is protected from the rubbing of cattle, by being made to shut into a recess in the falling post at b. When gates of this sort are made of young timber, it is, after being sawn up, steeped in lime water, which is found to add to its durability ; and, when well seasoned and put together as a gate, it receives three coats of boiling hot tar. 831. Gates to open hy Machinery. One of these, for a park or farm, made to open on the approach of a carriage, will be foimd in our Encyc. of Ayr., § 3107 ; and we sliall here describe two others ; one of which is used as a turnpike gate at Scotforth, in the neighbourhood of Lancaster, and the other is the invention of our correspondent, Mr. Saul, of that town. Mr. Said has sent us the following account of the mode of opening the gate at Scotforth. In fig. 844, a a represent two fixtures ; each consisting of two posts, with rollers between, for guiding the chains h and c. The chain b, fixed to the lower bar of the gate, is the opening chain ; and the chain c is the shutting one. There is a continuation of these two chains in tunnels under the road, represented by the dotted lines d d ■ and both chains pass under a roller at e, after which they rise through a wooden tube to f, in the sleeping-room of the toll-house. They are there worked by a winch, which being turned one way opens the gate, and the other way shuts it. Mr. Saul was informed by the gatekeeper that this gate did not work freely ; and he has suggested what is obviously a far more efficient plan, of which he has given us an explanation, accompanied by the sketch, fig. 845. In this figure, y represents a horizontal shaft jilaced in a tunnel made across the road directly under the gate ; working at one end on the heel the hanging post by a pinion at /;, and at the other by a beveled pinion at i, on the upright shaft k. This shaft has another pinion at its upper end, which works into the pinion I, on the axle of the winch m, supposed to be at the bedside of the gatekeepei. It is evident that, by turning this winch, the gate may be opened or shut to any extent at pleasure. The whole of the machinery may be concealed under ground, and in the wall of the house ; the winch alone protruding into the bed-room of the gatekeeper. Any millwright could easily make a working plan from the above description and sketch. It may sometimes be worth while to have the princijial entrance gate to a farm-yard con- itructed so as to open in this manner, and the use of the contrivance for toll gates, and for the coach-yaid gates of inns, is obvious. We hope also that the time is not far distant