ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,735,249, issued on Sept. 15.
"Slide gate closure" was invented by Alexander Barker (Red Deer, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A slide gate closure has a frame that is adapted to be mounted to a bottom of a bottom discharge container over the discharge opening at the bottom of the container. A slide gate is slidably mounted to the frame such that the slide gate is configured to move selectively between a closed position, in which the slide gate fully covers the discharge opening, and an open position, in which the slide gate does not fully cover the discharge opening. The slide gate closure further has a lever and a linkage that op...