The first UK Boat Lift

[Heartland]

Whilst the concept raising and lowering boats vertically in a caisson was suggested during the early days of the canal era, suggestions and patent applications did not necessarily lead to a full size working example. Early known working boat lifts include examples on the Ellesmere Canal and the Dorset & Somerset Canal, with the Ellesmere Canal patent machine being apparently the first. The location for Fussel's lift on the D & S is well established, but that of the Ellesmere (Rowland & Pickering) remains to be proved with two possible locations suggested near Ruabon. Establishing the location of this boat lift can only be of benefit  to the World Heritage Site at Pontcysyllte.  

[Pluto]

The first was possibly on the Coalisland Canal in Ulster with a date of 1767, though it is difficult to know how successful it was.The first successful lift would have been in Saxony, on the Churprinz Canal, which opened in 1789. The lift house at Halsbrücke, near Freiberg, still stands. James Watt Junior was attending the Mining School at Freiberg at the time, so there is the possibility that he brought back the idea to England, as lifts in this country are generally considered to date from the early 1790s. Below are photos of the lift in 1994, and a model of it in a museum

[RLWP]

What about in mines? Would there have been lifts in the Bridgewater system or the quarries under Dudley

Richard

[john6767]

According the Wikipedia the Hay Inclined Plane opened in 1792, is that early?

[OldGoat]

1 hour ago, RLWP said:

What about in mines? Would there have been lifts in the Bridgewater system or the quarries under Dudley

Richard

I've 'always' wondered about that - lots of explanations that the former's shafts were on different levels but nowt about how the coal got to the loading docks.

Even less about the workings id Dudlaye

[Bee]

The Horsehay branch of the Shropshire tub boat canal had some sort of lift in the hillside at Brierly hill (Not the Staffs Brierly hill) apparently opened in 1792, converted into an inclined plane a couple of years later. All sorts of odd things on the tub boat system, if you look carefully at the canal behind the Brewery inn at Coalport there is a door and a little slope where barrels must have been loaded onto tub boats and thence up the Hay inclined plane to various places,

[Pluto]

15 hours ago, RLWP said:

What about in mines? Would there have been lifts in the Bridgewater system or the quarries under Dudley

Richard

The Worsley incline dates from 1797 and was between two of the levels. There were four levels, the other two not having a navigable connection. Boats were raised and lowered vertically up and down shafts after construction and for repair, the boats being smaller than on the main canal levels.A similar system was probably used to transfer boats between the levels at Dudley, The first successful incline was probably on the Coalisland Canal in northern Ireland, and dates from 1777, though the St Columb' Canal incline was carrying containers in the 1770s, and there may have been an underground incline at Hugh's Bridge on the Donnington Wood Canal around that time. However, the Ketley incline of 1788 probably marks the start of successfully moving boats on inclines.

[Heartland]

My observations were more about the vertical lifts using a caisson, of which Anderton is a prime example. Although an incline or vertical lift are both boat lifts. Terry Fogarty's concept (he died 10th February 2018) was an inclined concrete tube which filled with water and raised/ lowered the craft using water in what was a very deep lock.   

[Heartland]

John Duncombe proposed a boat lift before the Rowland & Pickering trial, but it was not constructed.

An equally early contender, I gather would have been on the Somerset Coal Canal:

 

[magpie patrick]

14 minutes ago, Heartland said:

John Duncombe proposed a boat lift before the Rowland & Pickering trial, but it was not constructed.

An equally early contender, I gather would have been on the Somerset Coal Canal:

 

We think we know where this was but nothing remains other than the mound it was built in: with a flight of locks to build it is reasonable to assume the materials were either recycled on the locks or sold off. 

It did work, there were several successful trials, but after being unused for a short period (12 months) the canal company directors had a ride in it and the tank jammed half way down. As the tank was completely immersed in water (the lift relied on neutral buoyancy to cope with the load - it took full sized narrow boats) this was a scary position for the board, and once rescued they went off the idea. We reckon the technology of the time, even with our modern understanding of soil  mechanics, could not have resisted the movement caused by the soil around the caisson getting wet.

They had by this time already started the second one, and we think we know where that one was too, but it was never completed 

The idea was originally tried in Ketley, Shropshire, described as a 1/3 model in the minute books. I think they mean it took tub boats. That one probably has a small lift. As far as I'm aware the Ketley one was never used other than testing the concept.

I showed it to a chartered engineer I was working with some years ago with a view to building a modern version - he wouldn't touch it, too dangerous. 

Edited April 1, 2018 by magpie patrick
Soil mechanics not soup mechanics

[Pluto]

The success of enclosed caisson lifts can be judged from the comments at the end of the 1819 sale catalogue for Congreve's lock on the Regents Canal, made by one of the canal's proprietors. The note says: After paying expenses of sale - the produce was about £400!!! thus ended JWC humbug at the cost to the Co. of many thousands of pounds.

[magpie patrick]

Lifts worked best, where they worked at all, not where they replaced locks but where they replaced a lot of locks. I can imagine lifts on the regents canal would have been inordinately expensive even if they'd worked! Combe Hay locks climb 145 feet in a mile, on a tortuous route to squeeze the rise in, this would have been replaced by 3 lifts. It's difficult to imagine how Anderton could have been done with locks. Hobbacott Incline rose 225 feet at a gradient of about 1 in 4 if I recall correctly. Even the smallest lift on the Grand Western was 12 feet, and typically they were 2 to 4 times that lift. 

[Heartland]

The problems of making the Ellesmere Canal to the River Dee from Pontcysyllte led to the experimental lift near Ruabon being built and working from 1796. The location of this lift has still to be proved.

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, Heartland said:

The problems of making the Ellesmere Canal to the River Dee from Pontcysyllte led to the experimental lift near Ruabon being built and working from 1796. The location of this lift has still to be proved.

Is it known what size boats that lift took? Late 18th century lifts carrying full size narrow boats existed (e.g. the Caisson Lock) but were well ahead of their time.

[Heartland]

Yes the description of this lift mention a 70ft narrow boat being tried, current suggested locations are Home Farm on a proposed route by Jessop and Trevor Basin on the authorised 1796 line. Richard Dean insists that Home Farm fits the known criteria. From 1812 this place became the location of an industrial scale threshing machine and timber saw mill

[Chris Lowe]

The Grand Western canal certainly had fairly early working boat lifts designed by James Green.

[Heartland]

The Grand Western Canal was later, though the lifts on this line did convey craft for the working life of the waterway from Taunton, where a junction was made with the Taunton & Bridgwater Canal.. The lift on the Ellesmere Canal was worked during the trial period. Contemporary engineers have differing opinions as to the practical working of this lift. When in 1801 a decision was made to link the Ellesmere Canal at Whitchurch with the Chester Canal, any prospect of making the canal north of Pontcysyllte ceased to be and the need for a boat lift or lifts, also became unnecessary. The patentees messr Rowlands and Pickering were compensated to the value of £200, but after that time the fate of the structure has been a subject of considerable debate. Richard Dean is adamant that it was at Home Farm, but this proposed route was made around the time the aqueduct at Pontcysyllte was to be made on a plan suggested by Jessop where the canal was taken down through 3 locks, on the Fron side to a masonry structure, then raised by another three  on the Ruabon/Trevor side . When Jessoip decided to adopt the full height aqueduct, comprising an iron trough, the route was set for a line to Trevor and a climb to a summit near Cefn Mawr. It was this route that was adopted for the Act (the second act) that passed Parliament in 1796. It is this date that Mr Dean quotes as significant as the trial lift was in operation that year. However, the planning of the revised route had taken some two years as alternative options had been suggested and rejected. Thomas Telford was given the duty of choosing the trial spot. I find it difficult to see Telford choosing the trial on a speculative route. That through Home Farm would be speculative as it would have required the permission of the local landowner. I can see him choosing the route that would become the parliamentary line and the level part of that was through Trevor, where the canal now terminates. There is a spot at this basin where there is a short connecting basin adjacent to the bridge over the Plaskynaston Canal entrance. This basin was spanned by building known as the iron warehouse. Today this basin is about 40ft long but map evidence suggests it was 70ft long enough to be a candidate for the lift location. Surviving images of this now demolished structure show stone work as being of a age perhaps contemporary with the trial period.  

59823393a27fe_Ironwarehouse.docx

[magpie patrick]

48 minutes ago, Heartland said:

The Grand Western Canal was later, though the lifts on this line did convey craft for the working life of the waterway from Taunton, where a junction was made with the Taunton & Bridgwater Canal..

To add, they also took smaller boats (there was a sort of standard west country tub boat, about 26 feet by 6 feet, four would fit in a Bridgwater and Taunton Lock), and weren't entirely successful as they needed a shallow lock at the lower end to get the boat out of the tank.