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 more, but the project failed for financial reasons and they were not completed.
When the Dorset and Somerset Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1796, the builders were faced with the need for many locks, as the branch to Frome needed to accommodate a change in level of 264 feet (80 m). James Fussell was a knowledgeable ironworker, and proposed the building of boat lifts to raise and lower the boats, rather than conventional locks. There had been some precursors, for John Duncombe had invented a counterbalanced lift in 1790, while working as the engineer on the Ellesmere Canal, and Robert Wheldon was proposing to use lifts on the nearby Somerset Coal Canal. [1]
From the documents which accompanied the bill when it was submitted to parliament, it is evident that Fussell's plans were already well-formulated. However, since the design was untested, an experimental boat lift was built at the top of Barrow Hill. It would be capable of handling boats weighing 10 tons, and would raise them by 20 feet (6.1 m). In many respects, it was similar to those later built by James Green on the Grand Western Canal, which also used counterbalanced caissons. However, there were differences. One was that Fussell's design used chains which passed round wheels attached to the caisson, the end of which was fixed to the top of the structure, whereas Green fixed his chains to a bar on the caisson. Fussells design included guide rails running up the chamber, which steadied the caisson, and he used a separate chamber beneath the caisson to hold extra water, which made the top tank heavier, and thus provided the motive power to cause the lift to operate. [2] The design of his balance lock formed the basis for a patent application, number 2284, which he obtained in 1798. [3]
The trial lift was completed, and a series of tests were carried out in September and October 1800. The Bath Chronicle carried a report of the test on 16 October, stating that the lift had been operated several times, without any difficulty or problems, and that engineers had inspected it carefully and declared themselves entirely satisfied. The company intended to build five more lifts on Barrow Hill, and pits for four of them were excavated. Some stone work was also begun, but the company ran out of money, and the project was abandoned following the failure to raise additional money in 1803. [4]
Following excavations at the site in 2005 and 2006, the structure was estimated to be 35 feet (11 m) high and 30 feet (9.1 m) long. The total width was around 24 feet (7.3 m), which included the two pits and a central spine wall. [5]
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 southern reaches of the Somerset coalfield at Nettlebridge. Construction of the branch started in 1786, using boat lifts rather than locks to cope with changes of level, but the company ran out of money and the canal was abandoned in 1803, never to be completed.
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 fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself that rises and falls.
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732. An unusual clause in the enabling Act of Parliament stipulated that profits should be given to the County of Cheshire for the improvement of roads and bridges, but the navigation was not initially profitable, and it was 1775 before the first payments were made. Trade continued to rise, and by 1845, over £500,000 had been given to the county.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project.
The Anderton Boat Lift is a two-caisson lift lock near the village of Anderton, Cheshire, in North West England. It provides a 50-foot (15.2 m) vertical link between two navigable waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal. The structure is designated as a scheduled monument, and is included in the National Heritage List for England; it is also known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways.
The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and 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, bypassing Lands End. An additional purpose of the canal was the supply of limestone and coal to lime kilns along with the removal of the resulting quicklime, which was used as a fertiliser and for building houses. This intended canal-link was never completed as planned, as the coming of the railways removed the need for its existence.
An inclined plane is a type of 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.
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.
The Chard Canal was a 13.5 miles (21.7 km) tub boat canal in Somerset, England, that ran from the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St. Michael, over four aqueducts, through three tunnels and four inclined planes to Chard. It was completed in 1842, was never commercially viable, and closed in 1868. The major engineering features are still clearly visible in the landscape.
The Glastonbury Canal ran for approximately 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge in Somerset, England, where it entered the River Parrett and from there the Bristol Channel. The canal was authorised by Parliament in 1827 and opened in 1834. It was operated by The Glastonbury Navigation & Canal Company. Most of it was abandoned as a navigation in 1854, when a railway was built along the towpath.
The Somerset Coal Canal was a narrow canal in England, built around 1800. Its route began in basins at Paulton and Timsbury, ran to nearby Camerton, over two aqueducts at Dunkerton, through a tunnel at Combe Hay, then via Midford and Monkton Combe to Limpley Stoke where it joined the Kennet and Avon Canal. This link gave the Somerset coalfield access east toward London. The longest arm was 10.6 miles (17.1 km) long with 23 locks. From Midford an arm also ran via Writhlington to Radstock, with a tunnel at Wellow.
The Monkland Canal was a 12+1⁄4-mile-long (19.7 km) canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 1771. It reached Gartcraig in 1782, and in 1794 it reached its full originally planned extent, from pits at Calderbank to a basin at Townhead in Glasgow; at first this was in two sections with a 96-foot (29 m) vertical interval between them at Blackhill; coal was unloaded and carted to the lower section and loaded onto a fresh barge. Locks were later constructed linking the two sections, and the canal was also connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving additional business potential.
The Fontinettes Boat Lift (French: Ascenseur des Fontinettes or Ascenseur à bateaux des Fontinettes was built in 1888 on the Canal de Neufossé and connected the river Aa and the Neuffossé Canal in Arques, near Saint-Omer in the Pas-de-Calais.
James Fussell IV (1748–1832) was an iron magnate operating the Old Iron Works, Mells in Vallis Vale between Mells and Great Elm in Somerset. He was a promoter of the Dorset and Somerset Canal and the inventor of both the roller chain and the balance lock.
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 73.15 metres (240.0 ft) between the upstream and downstream reaches, it was the tallest boat lift in the world upon its completion, and remained so until the Three Gorges Dam ship lift in China was completed in January 2016.
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 by the excessive demand for water when conventional locks were used to raise and lower canal boats through large height differences. Such locks, each of which would only raise and lower boats through small height differences of a few feet, would not suffice when large height differences had to be tackled nor when water was in short supply. The caisson was thought to be one solution, although it transpired that the technology of the day was not capable of achieving this type of construction economically.
Tardebigge Locks or the Tardebigge Flight is the longest flight of locks in the UK, comprising 30 narrow locks on a two-and-a-quarter-mile (3.6 km) stretch of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Tardebigge, Worcestershire. It raises the waterway 220 feet (67 m), and lies between the Tardebigge tunnel to the North and the Stoke Prior flight of six narrow locks to the South. The Tardebigge Engine House is also on this stretch.
James Green (1781–1849) was a noted civil engineer and canal engineer, who was particularly active in the South West of England, where he pioneered the building of tub boat canals, and inventive solutions for coping with hilly terrain, which included tub boat lifts and inclined planes. Although dismissed from two schemes within days of each other, as a result of construction problems, his contribution as a civil engineer was great.
William Bennet was an English civil engineer, noted for his work on canals. Nothing is known of his early life or family history, but details of his work from about 1790 until 1826 are documented. His major projects were for the Dorset and Somerset Canal and the Somersetshire Coal Canal.
The Combe Hay Locks is a derelict flight of locks on the Somerset Coal Canal near Combe Hay, Somerset, England. Twenty two locks raised the canal 134 feet (41 m) over approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km). The lock flight was predated in the immediate area by two other methods of canal lifts—first by a series of caisson locks, then by an inclined plane. The lock flight opened in 1805, and was in operation until 1899.
