Since I emerged from Sleepy Hollow about 18 months ago, I've noticed a lot of these gates. Galvanised, lever action spring-loaded - very effective. Certainly much better than these old kissing gates where you have to take your rucksack off. They are a bit clangy, and you might find the galvanised finish somewhat obtrusive in the countryside, but for people like me it just makes them easier to find.
Now this is the gate to our local reservoir which I must have used dozens of times.. There is strong resistance when you open it, and it shuts very positively after you, and I had just assumed it was spring-loaded until today when I took a closer look. No spring ! After farting about with it for a while, I can only assume that the secret is the dog-leg arrangement at the bottom which somehow uses the weight of the gate to shut it.. Unless you know different.
(Please show your working. Any drawings should be on a separate sheet of paper)
So yes, I did the Reservoir Round again today.
No red socks this time, just grey Bridgedale Trekkers. And my Crane Thinsulate trousers (99p on eBay) And the shoes that dare not speak their name (unless the manufacturers come up with some goodies !)
For variety this time I went round the loch widdershins
Lovely day, muddy underfoot, a whiff of Spring in the air.
A Song of Enchantment
ReplyDeleteby Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)
A Song of Enchantment I sang me there,
In a green — green wood, by waters fair,
Just as the words came up to me
I sang it under the wild wood tree.
Widdershins turned I, singing it low,
Watching the wild birds come and go;
No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen
Under the thick-thatched branches green.
Twilight came; silence came;
The planet of evening's silver flame;
By darkening paths I wandered through
Thickets trembling with drops of dew.
But the music is lost and the words are gone
Of the song that I sang as I sat alone,
Ages and ages have fallen on me —
On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.
'Tell them I came, and no one answered,
ReplyDeleteThat I kept my word,' he said.
Indeedy. I believe it works because the centre of gravity of the gate is on the closed side of the supporting hinge line. This means that the gate tries to 'fall' away from the hinge line - so it closes.
ReplyDeleteClever: Nice and simple.
Ooooh.
ReplyDeleteDon't you love simple engineering.
Shame so much stuff us over engineered today and then poorly assembled.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
ReplyDeleteThough every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Still objects have never seemed so inanimate
ReplyDeleteAs when they're in, a deserted room.
There is no human sound to be heard;
Chairs sit like statues as though they have
Never once moved. A leaf shivers on the
Windowsill. The wind wrestles for it, but it
Cannot claim the fragile thing that Autumn’s
Midas touch has turned to gold.
Alan. Will be checking the next time i'm up to see if the top hinge is a ball and socket to allow the gate to move in two planes.
ReplyDeleteAndy. Good example here - Blogger has added a neat reply function but the bugger doesn't work!
Dangerous Dan. Poetry ? poetry ? I ask a technical question, and all you can come up with is poetry ? As a mate of mine from Walker was told by his dad " Aw they books is bad fu yir heid"