Best thing since sliced bread - any suggestions?

[pete harrison]

Does your 502 include the horse boats that were converted to motors whilst still carrying? (I's imagine you've not included conversions to motors for leasure users.)

Yes to the first question, and although I do have the engine details for most horse boat / butty leisure conversions they are not included in the 502

[pete harrison]

I'm shocked how few motors were built. I'd have guessed several thousand!.

I think what confuses things is that motor narrow boats generally had long lives, several owners and often changed names

[magpie patrick]

 

Why is this in history and heritage?

 

Because I actually had in mind something like the development of the ground paddle or the steam pump, not smart phones and canal based versions of Tindr!

[baz gimson]

 

 

Given a total market of only 502 I can't imagine any engine manufacturer designing a product specifically for carrying narrow boats.

 

I would suggest Bolinder engines were designed for marine use and their adoption in narrowboats was just an adaptation of an existing engine

 

in fact this link http://history.valtra.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=5%3A1844-bolinderin-kuuluisat-moottorit〈=en

 

says

 

 

 

Bolinder became famous especially for its engines. In 1893 the company manufactured the first four-stroke carburettor engine of its type in Sweden. Semi-diesel engines were the company’s biggest success, however. An estimated 80 percent of all the fishing boat engines in the world in the 1920s were Bolinders.

Edited July 22, 2016 by baz gimson

[Peter Reed]

Egg and bacon butties with salad cream.

[FadeToScarlet]

Lock ladders.

This. I was surprised how recent these were, and from reading about the problems people had, jumping down onto cabin tops (doing this whilst holding a full water can ended Tim Wilkinson's commercial boating for example) or being stuck, singlehanded, or abandoned with a boat at the bottom of a lock with no easy way up.

Edit- can I propose the Ham Baker paddle gear, on the modernised GU locks? Big paddles, harder to wind sometimes but sped up the locks filling and emptying.

[roland elsdon]

I remember coming up the gu lock wheeling by car in the 80s getting to a deep lock and finding bream at the bottom of a lock gates shut and Barry fuming. A helpful local had shut the gates after he went in. passenger boating through den ham deep we had to operate off the bank, rope to put boat in gear once it had dropped.

Dropping down onto a frosty wooden cabin top was always scary on a single boat in a wide lock

Love lock ladders...

[Rendelf]

What would have been the boat person's latest app when it came about?

 

Rolt talks about the boaters buying water cans painted with flowers from Mr Tooley. They couldn't afford the 'beautiful' things, so bought them with informal credit agreements, giving him coins when they passed through Banbury. Buying stuff on credit is probably a good way of judging its desirability...

Edited July 23, 2016 by Rendelf

[Sea Dog]

Because I actually had in mind something like the development of the ground paddle or the steam pump, not smart phones and canal based versions of Tindr!

Yeah, I was getting quite frustrated for you myself! About 5% of posts answered what you asked whilst about 95% answered what they thought you might have asked. RTFQ silly billies!

[bizzard]

This. I was surprised how recent these were, and from reading about the problems people had, jumping down onto cabin tops (doing this whilst holding a full water can ended Tim Wilkinson's commercial boating for example) or being stuck, singlehanded, or abandoned with a boat at the bottom of a lock with no easy way up.

Edit- can I propose the Ham Baker paddle gear, on the modernised GU locks? Big paddles, harder to wind sometimes but sped up the locks filling and emptying.

A lot of folk, especially single handers would carry a ladder specially to climb up or down. It would be planted on the cabin roof up against the the lock wall and they'd nip up or down it very sharpish in case the boat moved too much.

Many WW2 boat women carried ladders in their stockings.

Edited July 23, 2016 by bizzard

[Rendelf]

A lot of folk, especially single handers would carry a ladder specially to climb up or down. It would be planted on the cabin roof up against the the lock wall and they'd nip up or down it very sharpish in case the boat moved too much.

Do you think they could swim?

[Pluto]

 

Because I actually had in mind something like the development of the ground paddle or the steam pump, not smart phones and canal based versions of Tindr!

The ground paddle was first used at Willebroeck on the Brussels Canal in the late 1500s, and was introduced to this country by Thomas Steers on the Newry Canal, Britain's first summit level canal. Virtually all British canals used the technology, and it made the construction of canals here more economically viable, given that it allowed deeper locks. I would consider Steers far more important than Brindley, Bridgewater etc, and of course his work was based on the writings of Andrew Yarranton, another unsung inland waterway pioneer. Brindley and Bridgewater did nothing other than use existing technology and economic ideas that had already been around for over half a century.

 

Pumps, steam or otherwise, if used for water supply, suggests a poor canal engineer to me. Why waste money on something which should reach the canal by gravity if properly designed.

 

On diesel engines, the first on the L&LC was built by Sulzer under Herr Diesel, and installed in 1904. There followed several more experiments, but economically they were only just comparable to the steam engines in use at the time, which were more robust, given that they had to be operated by boatmen unskilled mechanically. I have just written an article for Narrowboat, not yet published, on the subject.

 

Most of the suggestions relate to narrowboats, which were not the mainstay of canal traffic nationally. On the successful northern wide waterways, I am sure boatmen would have appreciated a covered steering position where you could still reach the ropes easily.

 

Another innovation, found on French canals, is the automatic operation of locks set in motion by pulling a chain suspended over the channel. Now I can see boatmen here would have really liked that.

[gazza]

The replacement of Staunches with pound locks must have been a result for those who had to use them.

[MtB]

I remember coming up the gu lock wheeling by car in the 80s getting to a deep lock and finding bream at the bottom of a lock gates shut and Barry fuming. A helpful local had shut the gates after he went in. passenger boating through den ham deep we had to operate off the bank, rope to put boat in gear once it had dropped.

Dropping down onto a frosty wooden cabin top was always scary on a single boat in a wide lock

Love lock ladders...

 

 

This puzzles me. How would Barry have got off the boat to work the lock anyway, had the 'helpful' local not interfered by shutting the gate?

 

 

 

The replacement of Staunches with pound locks must have been a result for those who had to use them.

 

This crossed my mind too, but reading the OP revealed it is a canal related question.

 

And canals required the existence of the pound lock in the first place or the would not have been built. So the pound lock cannot have been a 'game changer' for the canals. More like a game creator!

[gazza]

 

 

This puzzles me. How would Barry have got off the boat to work the lock anyway, had the 'helpful' local not interfered by shutting the gate?

 

 

 

 

This crossed my mind too, but reading the OP revealed it is a canal related question.

 

And canals required the existence of the pound lock in the first place or the would not have been built. So the pound lock cannot have been a 'game changer' for the canals. More like a game creator!

I must admit I didn't notice that.

 

I Was a bit closer than mobile phones etc

[gazza]

Although on reading the OP again the question relates to boatmen and women and only mentions canal technology in the last sentence.

 

seeing as canal technology will have come from previous river navigation improvements I'm going to claim a tenuous link and let my original statement stand

[Derek R.]

(snipped)

Many WW2 boat women carried ladders in their stockings.

 

No ladders - just seams painted on. Though I doubt they would have bothered with even that.

 

Going back to the OP's original question, maybe lock approaches with access steps on the tail end, though many were built with these, some were not. And rollers for towing lines on some bends?

[zenataomm]

I expect Barry thought that as someone had been at the gates and "helped" him by closing them, they were waiting to come through and were would lift a paddle as well.

 

Bream was shortened at the time so would not have the easiest to stabilise in an empty lock.

[AMModels]

 

 

Pumps, steam or otherwise, if used for water supply, suggests a poor canal engineer to me. Why waste money on something which should reach the canal by gravity if properly designed.

 

 

Difficult on say the summit levels of the BCN, especially with the amount of lock traffic they saw, pumps were a godsend I would think.

[AMModels]

In my line of work (or at least the bit that involves canals and heritage) I keep coming across different ways of doing things, just last week at Hillmorton for example there were ingenious pawls on the "new" locks that fell into place once the paddle is raised. Most of these were innovations in their day, some small, some large, some gamechangers, some one-offs or dead ends. Give our fascination with the latest technology these days what do you reckon would have been the old boatman or woman's "latest app" - something that would make them step back and think "that's clever" when it first came about.

 

There is a purpose to this! I might have to give a talk on the general subject of canal technology to a local group who have heard all my others...

 

Having re read the question, I would imagine the widening of the lower GU was a very welcome advance. Not quite technology as such.

 

Gearboxes on engines would have been welcome.

[DRP]

On the successful northern wide waterways, I am sure boatmen would have appreciated a covered steering position where you could still reach the ropes easily.

 

 

Something like this,you mean?

 

 

(Picture courtesy of David Lowe)

 

 

David.

[Pluto]

 

Difficult on say the summit levels of the BCN, especially with the amount of lock traffic they saw, pumps were a godsend I would think.

But there were constant problems with water supply on the Birmingham canals, and the summit level was lowered. Boulton & Watt probably influenced the use of steam pumps, and their agent, John Rennie, also suggested and used pumps on many of the waterways he was involved with, usually resulting in poor or expensive water supplies.

[Alan de Enfield]

Yeah, I was getting quite frustrated for you myself! About 5% of posts answered what you asked whilst about 95% answered what they thought you might have asked. RTFQ silly billies!

 

The question as written :-

 

"Give our fascination with the latest technology these days what do you reckon would have been the old boatman or woman's "latest app" - something that would make them step back and think "that's clever" when it first came about"

 

If suggestions such as 'the internet' or 'mooring aids' fall within the 95% misunderstanding of latest technology then either I am totally misunderstanding the question or, the question was badly written.

 

The old saying : "What you thought you said, what I thought you said and what you actually said may be three different things"

[magpie patrick]

 

The question as written :-

 

"Give our fascination with the latest technology these days what do you reckon would have been the old boatman or woman's "latest app" - something that would make them step back and think "that's clever" when it first came about"

 

If suggestions such as 'the internet' or 'mooring aids' fall within the 95% misunderstanding of latest technology then either I am totally misunderstanding the question or, the question was badly written.

 

The old saying : "What you thought you said, what I thought you said and what you actually said may be three different things"

 

Indeed!

 

It's only a bit of fun anyway, I recall someone in the 70's saying that if portable tv's had been available in the 19th century every boating family would have had one! I'm pretty certain they'd have used mobile phones, and "Anderton for Orders" might have had to be titled "Anywhere with a Signal"...

 

On my list of things that made a difference at the time would be the continuous towing path, the split bridge, the roving bridge and the ground paddle, I wonder of there are more refinements of the day that had a "wow" factor, a hook for the towrope at locks perhaps?

 

The modern innovation that has transformed boating for me is the mobile phone, I used to imagine how one might travel and have a phone number one could be contacted on, internet access on the phone has done away with so many constraints (which isn't always a blessing). I have no TV, only use the radio to listen to football (for which the pub also serves) and often don't even run the fridge. Not so modern, but I shudder at boating without bottled gas or a similar convenient fuel for cooking - I think I'd eat out a lot.

 

edited to add, this looks rather like Tiggs' list earlier in the thread

The replacement of Staunches with pound locks must have been a result for those who had to use them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This crossed my mind too, but reading the OP revealed it is a canal related question.

 

And canals required the existence of the pound lock in the first place or the would not have been built. So the pound lock cannot have been a 'game changer' for the canals. More like a game creator!

 

There were canals without pound locks, the romans used single gates apparently and waited for a level to be made (so I believe, not really my field).

 

In China pound locks were a game changer, or rather the fact they could have a roof put over them was. Prior to this the canals had slipways and the boats were at the mercy of bandits mid-slope, a lock could be enclosed in a secure roofed compound. (again, so I believe)

Edited July 25, 2016 by magpie patrick

[bag 'o' bones]

Broad canal - Twice the load but not twice the effort?

 

The Grand Contour Canal - ok never built but would have been the best thing since sliced bread!