A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the
canal lock
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position i ...
.
It may be vertically moving, like the
Anderton boat lift in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, rotational, like the
Falkirk Wheel in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, or operate on an
inclined plane
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
, like the
Ronquières inclined plane
The Ronquières Inclined Plane is a canal inclined plane on the Brussels-Charleroi Canal in the province of Hainaut (province), Hainaut in Wallonia, Belgium. It opened in April 1968 having taken six years to build. It is in the municipality of Brai ...
in
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
.
History
A precursor to the canal boat lift, able to move full-sized canal boats, was the
tub boat lift
A tub boat lift is a type of boat lift designed to lift tub boats between different elevations of a canal. Tub boats are small boats used to transport coal and other minerals, sometimes working singly, sometimes in long trains. A tub boat lift () ...
used in mining, able to raise and lower the 2.5 ton
tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals.
There was no standardisation of tub boat size between different canals, but a typical English tub boat canal might have used boats around l ...
s then in use. An experimental system was in use on the
Churprinz mining canal in
Halsbrücke
Halsbrücke is a municipality and village in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated just north of Freiberg, on the banks of the Freiberger Mulde river.
Geography
Halsbrücke lies 5 km north of Freiberg on the lef ...
near
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
. It lifted boats using a moveable hoist rather than
caissons. The lift operated between 1789 and 1868,
[Charles Hadfield ''World Canals: Inland Navigation Past and Present'', p. 71, ] and for a period of time after its opening engineer
James Green reporting that five had been built between 1796 and 1830. He credited the invention to
Dr James Anderson of Edinburgh.
[The Canals of Southwest England ''Charles Hadfield'', p. 104, ]
The idea of a boat lift for canals can be traced back to a design based on balanced water-filled caissons in
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosophy, natural philosopher, physiology, physiologist, Society for Effecting the ...
's Commonplace Book (pp. 58–59) dated 1777–1778
In 1796 an experimental
balance lock
The balance lock was a type of boat lift designed by James Fussell (1748-1832) to transport boats up and down a hillside on a canal. An experimental balance lock was built as part of the Dorset and Somerset Canal and work was started for four ...
was designed by
James Fussell and constructed at Mells on the
Dorset and Somerset Canal
The Dorset and Somerset Canal was a proposed canal in southwestern England. The main line was intended to link Poole, Dorset with the Kennet and Avon Canal near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. A branch was to go from the main line at Frome to the ...
, though this project was never completed.
A similar design was used for lifts on the
tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals.
There was no standardisation of tub boat size between different canals, but a typical English tub boat canal might have used boats around l ...
section of the
Grand Western Canal
The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton in Devon in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel by a canal ...
entered into operation in 1835 becoming the first non-experimental boat lifts in Britain
[The Canals of Southwest England ''Charles Hadfield'', p. 109, ] and pre-dating the
Anderton Boat Lift by 40 years.
In 1904 the
Peterborough Lift Lock
The Peterborough Lift Lock is a boat lift located on the Trent Canal in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, and is Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.
For many years, the lock's dual lifts were the highest hydraulic boat lifts i ...
designed by
Richard Birdsall Rogers
Richard Birdsall Rogers (15 January 1857 – 2 October 1927) was a Canadian civil and mechanical engineer whose most significant achievement was the design of the Peterborough Lift Lock, a boat lift at Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
From 1 ...
opened in Canada. This high lift system is operated by gravity alone, with the upper bay of the two bay system loaded with an additional of water as to give it greater weight.
Before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam Ship Lift, the highest boat lift, with a height difference and European Class IV (1350 tonne) capacity, was the
Strépy-Thieu boat lift
The Strépy-Thieu boat lift () lies on a branch of the Canal du Centre in the municipality of Le Rœulx, Hainaut, Belgium. With a height difference of between the upstream and downstream reaches, it was the tallest boat lift in the world u ...
in Belgium opened in 2002.
The ship lift at the
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam (), officially known as Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project () is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downs ...
, completed in January 2016, is high and able to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.
The boat lift at
Longtan is reported to be even higher in total with a maximum vertical lift of in two stages when completed.
Selected lift locks
See also
*
List of boat lifts
This list includes all types of constructions to lift or lower boats between two levels of a waterway, such as boat lifts, canal inclined planes, portage railways and water slopes, but excluding conventional locks.
Belgium
* Canal du Centre lift ...
*
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position i ...
*
Balance lock
The balance lock was a type of boat lift designed by James Fussell (1748-1832) to transport boats up and down a hillside on a canal. An experimental balance lock was built as part of the Dorset and Somerset Canal and work was started for four ...
*
Canal inclined plane
An inclined plane is a type of boat lift cable railway used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings.
History
Inclined planes have evolv ...
– another technique for lifting boats.
*
Caisson lock
The caisson lock is a type of canal lock in which a narrowboat is floated into a sealed watertight box and raised or lowered between two different canal water levels. It was invented in the late 18th century as a solution to the problem posed ...
: a submerged boat lift.
*
Shiplift
A shiplift is a modern alternative for a slipway, a dry dock, floating dry dock or a dry dock, graving dry dock. A shiplift is used to dry dock and launch ships. It consists of a structural platform that is lifted and lowered exactly vertically, ...
– used for raising vessels in shipyards
*
Marine railway
A patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The mar ...
inclined plane for shipyards
*
Water slope
A water slope () is a type of canal inclined plane built to carry boats from a canal or river at one elevation up or down to a canal or river at another elevation.
History
In 1885, German engineer Julius Greve published drafts for water slopes ...
*
Saint-Louis-Arzviller boat lift, France – which is actually a
canal inclined plane
An inclined plane is a type of boat lift cable railway used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings.
History
Inclined planes have evolv ...
*
Portable boat lift
A portable boat lift is a tool designed specifically to allow one person to transport, set up, and safely separate boats from boat trailers. Portable boat lifts are intended to be used on land, rather than near, in, or on the water. Sometimes refe ...
*
Patent slip
A patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The mar ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Source mentions its own sources
The International Canal Monuments List*
– in fact an inclined plane
Twin Ship Elevator Lüneburg– Technical data of the
Scharnebeck twin ship lift
The Scharnebeck twin ship lift is a boat lift in Scharnebeck, northeast of Lüneburg, in the Lüneburg (district), District of Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is on the Elbe Lateral Canal, which connects the Elbe (northern and lower endpoint ...
near
Lüneburg
Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
Dutch boat lift page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boat Lift
Vertical transport devices