The Falkirk Wheel was built in 2002 as a government-funded Millennium Project. Basically, it connected two older canals that had been silted in and replaced 8 of the 11 original locks with a device that rotated and lifted canal boats up 79'. It also restored and mostly rebuilt three older locks, one below and two above the Wheel so that they could lift boats an additional 36 '.
It also joined two canals: The Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canals. When it was built, the canals had not been used in decades because of silting up and unusable locks. Many people considered it a boondoggle and useless expenditure of money, but it has been turned into a tourist attraction because of its uniqueness as the UK's only rotating boat lift, and the connected canals are now popular with people owning or renting canal boats for holidays.
However, first, I need to share two photographs of a very tall truck I saw on the freeway or "dual carriageway" on the way to the Wheel. I did some research, and while trucks can only be 100" wide, there is no limit on height, other than their being able to fit under bridges.
I would NOT want to drive this rig in the wind!!
And now the Falkirk Wheel. Admittance was about $15 and included a boat tour of the wheel.
As I drove in, I saw one of the tour boats on top of the wheel!
Basically, the wheel lifts boats from the bottom to the top where they enter the higher canal. It works on Archimedes' Physical Law of Buoyancy, which according to the online Encylopedia Britannica says that "any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body."
This means that a boatload of people or whatever that is floating in an amount of water displaces the same weight of water as the empty opposite tank of water. This results in only a tiny amount of force is needed to move this balanced wheel. (OK, if I did not explain it correctly, look it up or ask a high school physics student!)
This is the lower rebuilt lock. I was lucky to arrive just in time to watch some vacationers arriving in a canal boat and going through this lock. Looked like fun!
After it left the lock, it headed over to the docking area to spend the night.
Then it was time to get on the tour boat.
Surprisingly, we rode up with another canal boat, this one rented by some American tourists.
At the far end here, you can see the tunnel that boats need to go through after leaving the wheel. At this point, we are at the top and level with the top canal, which means we have been raised up 79' in a very few minutes. Better than the old locks where horses dragged boats through 8 locks!
A view from the top!
Through the tunnel!
These are the top two locks. The boat that went through the wheel with us is now in the first level of the locks.
We've gone through the tunnel, turned around, and are now headed back through.
All the way through and now on top of the wheel. It will take just a very few minutes to complete our trip.
On to my hotel for the night, and tomorrow I will drive to York.
No comments:
Post a Comment