Best thing since sliced bread - any suggestions?

[Pluto]

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)

The development of the lock is one of my current research projects which is throwing up some variations on what is generally published. On your first comment above, I always think about friends in Germany and Poland who ask me what is the difference between a canal and a channel. The difference is not really apparent, though if you have grown up with the English language, you can have a reasonable, though difficult to explain, understanding.

 

On China, I am now pretty sure that their oldest locks were flash locks, or their development, as their canals were also used for water control, and the water could be carrying much silt. Flash locks, using planks rather than gates, would be the easiest way of coping with these conditions, and the variation in levels tends to be quite small in much of eastern. Inclines seem to have been used from around the seventeenth century, again because they were easier to maintain than stop planks where silt was a problem. The inclines were often mentioned in the reports by 18th century European visitors, and they assumed that they were an early development superseded by locks, as that is what had happened in Europe. I haven't found what you could consider a conventional chamber lock prior to the late 19th or even 20th century. There is a system on the Magic Canal which uses two stop gates located fairly close together, and there seems to be something similar where the Grand Canal crosses the Shangdong Peninsula. Neither has mitre gates, which were only used fairly recently as siltation came under better control. There is a final possible chamber type lock at Chang'an, near to Suzhou, and I am currently trying to get more information, and perhaps visit the site next year. I don't think there is much left as the area has been heavily built over.

 

In Europe, the chamber lock was first introduced by Bertole di Novate on the Canal di Bereguardo, to the west of Milan in the late 1450s, some forty years before Leonardo da Vinci did any work on similar navigable hydraulics. Novate's design was probably a development of the flash lock based system at the end of the Naviglio Grande where it entered the city centre of Milan.

[MtB]

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

 

The more I think about this, the more staggering the figure becomes.

 

I imagined the canal system was teeming with motor and butty pairs back in the heyday but obviously not as there were only 502 motors ever built.

 

Might I enquire if you know how many horse boats were built? And how many were in use at any one time?

 

With 30,000-ish boats now and perhaps only, say, 3,000-ish working boats in it's heyday, it's beginning to look to me as though back then, the cut really was the quiet and peaceful place people assume it is now!

[Sea Dog]

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"

OK, ok, I see where you coming from and surrender!

 

It's not what the OP meant, and I and others interpreted him as he intended and you and others may have misunderstood him but, regardless of who's got the right gist, your old saying definitely applies!!!

 

ETA - both interpretations are interesting questions though OP. Maybe split bridges such as those on the Stratford might be one from the old fashioned innovations which impressed boaters pov?

Edited July 25, 2016 by Sea Dog

[Derek R.]

(snipped) Maybe split bridges such as those on the Stratford might be one from the old fashioned innovations which impressed boaters pov?

 

Unless you were familiar with bridges with towpaths that went beneath along with the canal, then feeding the tow line through a slot might not have appeared so innovative!

 

Don't think mobile phones would have been much use with nowhere on the horse to plug'em in (unless you wanted a hoof print in your delicates).

[pquinn]

The selfie stick is a great innovation. I like to take pictures of myself in various poses whilst indulging in some canal based activities like trying to pelt seagulls with stones or scraping dog crap off my six euro crocs. Then i put the photos up on various social media sites where my 15,000 friends and followers tell me how totes gorgeous and amazeballs i look in my grotty combats and stained t-shirt. It gives me an enormous sense of well being.

[Sea Dog]

Unless you were familiar with bridges with towpaths that went beneath along with the canal, then feeding the tow line through a slot might not have appeared so innovative!

 

 

I was thinking of the ones over the lower lock gates Derek. Not unique to the Stratford Canal, but probably most famously there.

[pete harrison]

Might I enquire if you know how many horse boats were built? And how many were in use at any one time?

I am unable to answer your questions as it is impossible to gather the information from the records I keep, and it is sometimes difficult to separate narrow boats from wide boats, especially in the north

[MtB]

I am unable to answer your questions as it is impossible to gather the information from the records I keep, and it is sometimes difficult to separate narrow boats from wide boats, especially in the north

 

 

But Pete, you know EVERYTHING!!!!!

 

[Tam & Di]

On your first comment above, I always think about friends in Germany and Poland who ask me what is the difference between a canal and a channel. The difference is not really apparent, though if you have grown up with the English language, you can have a reasonable, though difficult to explain, understanding.

 

Slightly off topic, but picking up on this point the CEVNI signage used on continental waterways has official versions in English, French and Russian. There is a cranked arrow sign which clearly from its usage means that the deep water channel moves to the side indicated by the arrow. However the English translation states "move to the side of the channel indicated by the arrow" which is a rather different thing and could cause two vessels to collide in certain circumstance. "Canal" can mean canal or channel in French, so French barge masters have to know what the word "canal" actually means in that particular context.

 

Tam

[pete harrison]

 

 

But Pete, you know EVERYTHING!!!!!

 

Whilst I can provide details of thousands of 'historic' narrow boats I am unable to pin down specifically when every boat went out of service or was broken up.

 

I would imagine that there are documents detailing how many boats were in commission year on year but I do not currently have access to these

[Pluto]

There are figures for the boats registered in 1877 which amounted to 4964 nationally, though this was after just one year of registration. Of course, only boats with living accommodation had to be registered, and 22,206 people were estimated to be living aboard. The actual figures are certainly higher than these, as only two or three hundred boats were registered on the L&LC, and a figure of around 1000 is quoted elsewhere for a couple of decades later. I would suggest that the total figure around 1900 would have been something like 20,000 to 25,000 at the most. You should be able to make an estimate by calculating using the tonnage carried on each waterway, and dividing by the tons carried by one boat and an average number of trips. Much of this sort of detail is given in the statistics for the Royal Commission circa 1910, though any answer would be conjectural.