US672924A - Automatic gate. - Google Patents

Description

C. M. STONE.

AUTOMATIC GATE.

(Application filed Jan. 18, 1901.

' No. 672,924. Patented Apr. 30, l90l.

(No Model.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

CLINTON M. STONE, OF FAYETTE C OUNTT, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF,

AND LEWIS PpZELLER, OF OONNERSVILLE, INDIANA.

AUTOMATIC GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 672,924, dated April 30, 1901.

Application fil d January 18, 1901- Serial No. 43,703. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLINTON M. STONE, a citizen of the United States, residing in Fayette county, Indiana, (post-office address (Jonnersville, Fayette county, Indiana,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Gates, of which the following is a specification. V A

This invention pertains to automatic gates of the load-opening type involving a hinged gate whose pivot-axis is thrown out of the vertical by the pulling of cables through the medium of trip-levers acted upon by the passing vehicle, the approaching vehicle causing the gate to swing open and the departing vehiole causing it to swing shut. Like many gates of this class, myimproved gate disturbs the verticality of the hinge-axis of the gate by moving the lower pintle in the arc of a' circle.

My improvements relate to certain details of construction whereby there is secured a superior degree of certainty in operation and a greater degree of permanency of-operative z 5 conditions.

My improvements will be readily understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a gate embodying my improvement; Fig. 2, a plan, part horizontal section and somewhat diagrammatic, of the parts at the shifting hingepintle; Fi 3, a perspective view of the parts 5 at the shifting pintle, and Fig. 4 a side elevation of one of the tripping devices.

In the drawings, 1 indicates the hinge-post of the gate; 2, the latch-post, the same appearing in Fig. 1 as being cut off low enough 40 down to expose the catch 6; 3, the holdingpost, designed to hold the gate latched in open position; 4, the gate, hinged to post 1 and latching to post 2 when closed and to post 3 when open; 5, a latch-spring upon the gate,

adapted to spring into engagement with catches upon posts 2 and 3 and to be disengaged from those catches when the free end of thegate is sufficiently elevated, this spring being an inwardly-yielding blade secured at 0 its upper end to the latch-stile of the gate, the lower end of the spring being free; 6, a

fixed catch upon post 2, behind which the lower end of spring t engages, the ends of the catch being beveled, so that as the gate closes it willforce the lower end of the spring inward and permit it to engage behind the catch when the gate is in closed position, the catch being at such height relative to the lower end of the spring that a certain elevation of the free end of the gate will lift the spring out of engagement with the catch; 7, a similar catch upon holding-post 3, this catch being adapted to be engaged by spring 5 and hold the gate open; 8, a bracket secured to post 1 near the foot of the hinge-stile of the gate, this bracket having ears projecting toward the hinge edge of the gate; 9, a spindle vertically journaled in bracket 8; 10, an arm fast on spindle 9; 11, a hinge-eye in the outer end of arm 10, adapted to receive the pintle of the lower gate-hinge; 12, a stop to limit the turning of arm 10 in one direction; 13, a stop to limit the turning of arm 10 in the other direction, the two stops being so placed as to permit arm 10 to swing through about a quarter of a circle; 14,the upper hinge of the gate; 15, in Fig. 2, a circle illustratiugthe position of the pintle of the top hinge relative to hinge-eye 11 of the lower hinge when the gate is in closed position; 16, a rectangular block fast on the lower end of spindle 9; 17, earsproject-ing from two opposite faces of block 16, two ears projecting from oneface and two from the opposite face of the block, the two ears of a face being in an upper and lower horizontal plane, respectively; 18, links pivoted to cars 17 and adapted to fold against the appropriate faces of block 16, the arrangement being such, as seen in Fig. 2, that in one angular position of block 16 two of the links lie against c the faces of the block, while the other two links are free of the faces of the block and pull directly upon the lugs, uniting them to the block; 19, eyebolts pivoted to the outer ends of links 18 and provided on their outer ends each with a pair of nuts; 20, straps for eyebolt-s 19,'each consisting ofa flat plate with an eye in its outer end, its innereud being bent at right angles and having an eye engaging the eyebolt and adj ustably secured loo thereon by means of the nuts; 21, 22, 23, and 24:, cables or wires attached to straps 20 and extending along the side of the roadway, a pair toward and past holding-post 3 and a pair in the opposite direction; 25, a trip-lever of how form disposed at the side of the road- Way in line of wheel trackage at some distance beyond holding-post 3, the bow of the trip presenting itself upwardly and across the wheel-track, so that as a vehicle-wheel strikes it the trip will yield downwardly; 26, an arm fast on the axis of trip and projecting normally upward in the plane of trip 25; 27, a spring connected with arm 26 and serving to maintain the arm and its trip 25 yieldingly in normal upright position; 28, a double-ended arm loose on the axis of trip 25 and disposed against theinner face of arm 26, this doubleended arm having cable 23 connected with its upper end and cable 21 connected with its lower end; 29, alug projecting inwardly from arm 26 and bearing normally against the forward edge of the lower end of double-ended arm 28 and adapted under certain relative rocking conditions of the arms to engage the forward edge of the upperend of arm 28; 30, a foundation-box sunk in the roadway to furnish a support for the bearings of the triplever and for the spring 27; 31, the trip mechanism which has been described, considered as a whole, being that trip which is disposed at the opening side of the gate; 32, a similar trip mechanism, considered as a whole, disposed at the opposite side of the gate and having its double-ended arm connected with cables 22 and 24; 33, an arrow indicating direction of vehicle approach from the opening side of the gate, or, in other words, against the opening direction of the gate, and 34: an arrow indicating direction of vehicle approach in the opening direction of the gate.

The drawings indicate the normal position of the parts with the gate closed. It now, looking at Fig. 2, cable 21 be pulled upon, block 16 will be partially rotated, the link 18, pertaining to cable 21, continuing to lie against the face of the block until the block shall have turned through an eighth of a circle, after which the free end of the link leaves theblock. During this operation it is necessary, of course, that cables 23 and 24 should have yielded to permit the turning of the block. The turning of the block 16 through about a quarter-turn has the effect of moving hinge-eye 11 farther away from the hingepost. The obvious result is that the free end of the gate is lifted, and this lift is to be such that spring 25 will come up out of engagement with catch 6, thus leaving the gate in condition to be opened. At the same time the hinge-eye 11 has moved to the right of the vertical plane of top hinge 15, the result being that the plane of the gate is thrown out of the perpendicular, the general hinge-axis becoming inclined, with its bottom approaching post 2 and receding from post 3 Under these conditions of inclined hinge-axis the gravity of the gate causes it to swing open, its free end descending as the swinging takes place. The gate is finally arrested at holding-post 3, spring 5 snapping behind catch 7. If now, the gate having been thus opened and held, cable 23 be pulled upon, the hinge-eye 11 will be turned back to normal position. This again elevates the outer end of the gate and frees the latch-spring from catch 7 and throws the plane of the gate out of the vertical, whereupon gravity causes the gate to swing to closed position, its free end descending and spring 5 snapping behind catch 6. Thus it will be seen that pulling upon cable 21 or cable 22 the gate will be caused to open and become latched in open position, while by pulling upon cable 23 or cable 24 the gate will become unlatched from the holding-post and caused to close and become latched to the latch-post.

Normally both trips stand upright, being so held by their springs. If a vehicle approaches in the direction of arrow 33, one of its wheels, striking trip 25, will depress that trip and immediately pull upon cable 21 and cause the opening of the gate in the manner heretofore described. During this action the proper slack or endwise movement was permitted to cable 23, and when the wheel shall have passed the trip the trip rises to normal position, lug 29 having lost motion with reference to the upper arm of double-ended lever 28, so that arm 28 in its new position will not interfere with the lug. having passed through the open gate, engages at trip 32 and depresses it, the result being that cable 24 is pulled upon, thus causing the gate to close behind the vehicle.

It will be observed from Fig. 4: that if a vehicle has actuated trip 25 and that trip has risen behind the vehicle a following vehicle depressing trip 25, or the rear wheels of the same vehicle, for that matter, are of no damaging effect upon any of the trip mechanism, owing to the lost motion between lug 29 and the two arms of lever 28. This applies to both trip mechanisms, and it follows that one trip can never interfere with the action of another or one actuation of either trip bring about conditions of itself or the other trip to be productive of injurious strains in case of subsequent actuation of either trip.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a gate, the combination, substantially as set forth, of a hinge-post, a latch-post, a holding-post, beveled catches on the latchpost and holding-post, a gate, a spring upon the free end of the gate adapted to snap into and rise out of said catches, an upper gatehinge uniting the gate to the hinge-post, a bracket on the hinge-post, a vertical spindle journaled in said bracket between the hingepost and the gate, an arm fast on said spindle, a hinge-eye in said arm engaged by the lower hinge-pintle of the gate and adapted by the turning of the arm to throw the plane of the gate out of the vertical and to lift the outer end of the gate, stops to limit the turning of said spindle, a block fast upon said The vehicle,

spindle, four links hinged to the respective corners of said block, two trip-levers, one mounted in the roadway at each face of the gate, a trip-arm on the axis of the trip-lever in the angular plane of the trip-lever, a spring connected with said trip-arm and tending to hold the trip-arm and trip-lever in normal vertical position, a double-ended arm loose on the axis of the trip-lever, a lug upon the trip-arm adapted to engage and turn the double-ended lever and having lost motion with reference thereto, and cables or wires having connection with said links and said double-ended arms.

2. In a gate, the combination, substantially as set forth, of a hinge-post, a latch-post, a

a holdingpost, beveled catches on the latchpost and holding-post, a gate, a spring upon the free end of the gate adapted to snap-into and rise out of said catches, an upper gatehinge uniting the gate to the hinge-post, a bracket on the hinge-post, a vertical spindle journaled in said bracket between the hingepost and the gate, an arm fast on said spindle, a hinge-eye in said arm engaged by the lower hinge-pintle of the gate and adapted by the turning of the arm to throw the plane of the gate out of the vertical and to lift the outer end of the gate, stops to limit the turn ing of said spindle, a block fast upon said spindle, four links hinged to the respective corners of said block, two trip levers, one mounted in the roadway at each face of the gate, a trip-arm on the axis of the trip-lever provided with a pair of nuts, a strap engaging each of said eyebolts between the nuts thereof, and cables or wires connecting said straps with said double-ended levers.

CLINTON M. STONE.

Witnesses:

G. O. FLOREA, L. L. Bnoonnus.

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