Rudolph Hooker -- Stiff gates

Whilst downing a pint of Spitfire the other night in a canalside pub, I struck up a conversation with a chap called Bert Flangewick. It turns out he worked for BW in the "good old days" ( I can't believe I'm printing this.... Matt). The topic of gates that are stiff to shut and fall open in the slightest breeze came up. Ah no problem said the man, I'll show you what's wrong!

He took out a Biro and a matchbox to make a simulated lock gate. Look here he said. Using the Biro as the pivot, he moved the top of the Biro (sorry pivot) to the left, and the matchbox (sorry gate) swung to the left. Conversely, moving the top of the pivot to the right the gate swung to the right.

From this he said, you can figure out that if the gate falls open the pivots of the gates are too far apart at the top, i.e facing outwards from the lock. In my day, he said, we always hung gates with the pivots leaning in a tad. I asked him if AV had been in touch and he said yes, but when he asked if he was entitled to a consultancy fee they hung up!

All it cost me to solve the stiff gate saga was 8 pints of Spitfire, 3 for Bert 5 for me. (He did most of the talking then? .... Matt)