Who had the first gate installation?....
What was the very first automatic gate system and who owned it? If anyone knows, please reply to this post. In the meantime, I can only guess and i would assume it was some ancient King or Queen with burly guardsmen who opened and closed the gates, each and every time.
Keeping the royal household safe and sound. Protecting livestock and possessions alike. All handmade from the rarest of materials, i would expect they cost a small fortune back then.
Funny how some things rarely change that much. Today the best gates still cost a small fortune, the greater change is that more of us can now afford them. 30 years ago when i started in the powered gate industry, there were 20,000 millionaires and my goal, was to design & install gate systems for all of them.
Today i have read that there are 10's of 1,000's of gate systems installed each year with about 3 million across the UK and Ireland. We have 12,500 installations listed on our own database, so i guess we are over half way through our original target.
The thing is that the number of millionaires has grown vastly and my original number has been dwarfed by today's count, that is now in the 100's of 1000's with asset millionaires almost unlimited. Therefore even if i lived forever, i would probably not be able to catch up.
Back in 1983 when i first started fitting electric powered gate systems, there were very few companies that could install an automatic gate and most of them did so as a side line to their core business activity. Reliability and durability was generally poor and a huge lack of understanding from both customer and installer, lead to some very questionable results. Even now i learn something new each day and have yet to find two identical systems, among the many thousands i have come across, not just worked on. Today Google will list many thousands on companies that will boast years of experience and my worry is just how useful each one really is?
Is automation a core product or just a sideline? What level of after-sales support can be assured? Who can vouch for their ability to deliver the right solution that fulfills my needs, safely and reliably, for a reasonable life expectancy? These are an important questions, all would-be customers should ask.
The alternatives are usually more expensive than is expected and the frustrations of being locked in, or out, of your own property too great. Guide to best design is free to download. Good luck with your next decision.
Brand & Development Manager at Frontier Pitts Ltd
8 年Think we could add to that book too! Lots of Automatic Security Gates from Frontier Pitts including Longleat Zoo in 1967! https://www.frontierpitts.com/solutions/case-studies/sliding-gates/first-security-gates/
Business Coach and Mentor @ Barrington.Co | Problem Solver - Facilitator - Team Builder | Helping businesses leaders and teams have more impact.
8 年Great article Alan Smith and good advice.
Director at Fensec Ltd - Fencing & Security
8 年Good questions Alan. The sad thing is more & more firms are entering the market thinking it is easy, but as you say, each install is different, so it takes a mountain of experience to know the correct answers to a good installation. The first automatic gates we fitted where in 1976 for British Gas & bit after Fred Flintstone! Some of the worst we have seen put in by others, were some very large palisade gates at 9.00m leaves, so very heavy, mounted on RSColumns so when the motors stopped the gates kept travelling for some considerable distance winding themselves up like a spring. You can guess the rest? We could write a book!