^^^How does one increase the effects of the gate?
I don’t own a Gate, and I have never seen inside one, and I have never been told anything about how it works by anyone. However I do know how it works. It’s basically a brick of material similar to mats or Alpha cards, and a coil of wire. So adding more material similar to mats to the surface of the gate will increase its power, because those materials will also be affected by the EM field produced by the coil inside the Gate.
I want to stress that Tim was very smart, and may have incorporated many refinements into the design of the Gate that go beyond my minimalist description.