Drop rod latch for double-hung gates

Abstract

An improved drop rod latch for use with double-hung gates used with fences of woven wire fabric. Typically one of such gates is secured in position by a vertically reciprocating latch rod carried in tubular guides attached to the inside or central stile of the gate frame and engaging at its lower end a hole or a socket member placed in the ground. The upper end of this latch rod has a short, right-angled extension which serves as a handle by which the latch may be grasped for manipulation. The central stile of the other gate frame carries a fork latch pivoted to extend between a horizontally projecting position in which it embraces the central stile of the gate to which the latch rod is attached and a vertically projecting position in which it does not engage said gate. Thus, when the latch rod is in engagement with the ground socket and the fork latch is embracing the latch rod-carrying stile, the gates cannot be swung to open position. The fork latch can be secured in horizontally projecting position by a conventional padlock. The improvement includes one or more projections on the latch rod which prevent its removal from the gate which carries it.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.