Question: Tell us about the gate.

Nicola Greene answered on 13 Nov 2015:

So my grandad had a gate at his house and he used to shut it when he drove out and have to open it again when he was driving in. He got sick of getting out of his car to do this, so he installed a mechanism to make it open automatically.

You used to drive up to his gate, and he installed a toilet there. When you flushed the toilet, the transfer of weight from the water leaving the cistern lifted a weight which in turn made the gate open. Then like a normal toilet, the cistern would fill again with the same water and the gate would close automatically.

I think he was a pretty fantastic inventor, but unfortunately I was too young when he died to get to build stuff with him.

It was the funniest looking thing, pulling up to a gate and flushing a toilet though…perhaps he influenced my career somehow!