Canal Chain Propulsion

[Pluto]

The cross-river tug at Decize in 1995. It does not seem to be there anymore.

[Pluto]

A couple more tugs, the first being a model of an Elbe tug in the Shipping Museum at Lauenburg, a boatmen's town on the Elbe where the Elbe-Lübeck Canal joins the river. The second is an old photo of a tug on the Main, copied from an exhibition in the Shipping Museum at Wörth, which used to be run by old boatmen.

[Derek R.]

The French seem to like concreting things in. We visited a motor museum once where exhibits were set behind low concrete walls. Anti-theft?

 

Curious to see rudders. Presumably there were no propellers and whilst used on rivers to 'guide', in a tunnel the requirement would be superfluous?

Fascinating images of craft never seen.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Derek R.

[Pluto]

The French like their concrete, and they were very early to use it on canal construction, with the foundations for some locks using it as early as the end of the 18th century.

 

Although the photos of chain tugs I have put up look fairly similar, there were numerous differences. There were some with paddle wheels or propellors, which allowed them to move around even when there was no chain. It also allowed them to tow downstream without using the chain, thus avoiding the difficulties of passing as described above. On the Rhone, they even tried one with a spiked wheel which could be lowered onto the bed of the river to propel trains of boats upstream. On the Volga in Russia, the river was mainly slow-flowing enough for horses or men called Burlaki to draw boats upstream. However, at faster-flowing sections, a horse-powered tug was used. An anchor and chain or rope were carried by a small boat upstream, and the tug was then hauled upstream by horses operating a winch onboard. When they reached the anchors, these could be raised and moved further upstream, and the process continued.

[David Mack]

7 minutes ago, Pluto said:

On the Rhone, they even tried one with a spiked wheel which could be lowered onto the bed of the river to propel trains of boats upstream.

The boating equivalent of a rack railway!

[Pluto]

I have just come across this video

, which includes film of the last chain tug on the Neckar in 1936. It is in German, but with some interesting footage of tugs passing.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Pluto

[Derek R.]

That 1955 film is good too. Ice-breaking on the river.

[Pluto]

Just come across this photo in the French National Library collection which shows one of the chain tugs on the Seine, plus the installation of a moveable weir associated with a new lock. It gives some idea of the number of people needed to operate a chain tug.

[magpie patrick]

2 hours ago, Pluto said:

Just come across this photo in the French National Library collection which shows one of the chain tugs on the Seine, plus the installation of a moveable weir associated with a new lock. It gives some idea of the number of people needed to operate a chain tug.

 

 

Presumably the chain tug would shortly be out of business - the technology wouldn't mix well with locks 

[Pluto]

2 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

 

Presumably the chain tug would shortly be out of business - the technology wouldn't mix well with locks 

No, I think they continued in use, with a gap/groove in the sill to allow for the chain. Water conservation was not too much of a problem on rivers, where the locks were more to increase navigable depth, rather than control water usage.