The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Fences

THIS illustration of chain gates is a most amazing and curious item and shows a type of gate one would never hope to see today. On the other hand, the more one studies it the more one can see the possibilities of the novelty. Simply throwing over the self-locking lever drops the whole affair to the road.

The double-chain gate at the bottom in theory appears a mite more complicated, although in practice it may not work out that way. The seeming lowness of both barriers appears surprising.

IF YOU care for crossword puzzles this novel gate should be more than usually interesting. It takes the average observer quite a time to figure out how the thing works. To operate it, we would suggest lifting the two-bar gate and moving it to the left, until the vertical brace joining the two bars (shown about two inches from the left-hand gate post) strikes the lower or inner gate post. This will then clear the gate from the right, and permit it to be carried out of the way, where, in its open position, it will rest on the vertical upright illustrated about one inch in the drawing from the lower gate post. The whole thing is ingenious, and if well built of strong light weight material should serve most effectively.

AND here is another proper puzzle. It is rather more complicated and somewhat fancier than the one just discussed. Actually what happens is that a two bar pole gate is pivoted by a strong bolt through a short log, and through the two right-hand gate posts. This acts as a hinge for the gate to swing upward upon. A short log of heavy wood is attached to the two righthand gate posts by iron rods. When this is lifted upward and over to increase the weight on the right end of the upper gate pole (the whole being adjusted so that the gravel in the buckets permits just nice balance when the gate is down) the entire gate cantilevers upward into a vertical position, out of the way. The bucket of gravel acting as counter balance somehow adds a bizarre touch. It is presumed that the bucket has holes in its bottom to allow rain water to escape; either that or a cover against both rain and snow.