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Pluto

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Pluto last won the day on March 4

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    http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/home.htm

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    Barlic
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    European inland waterway history, including the transfer of technology during the early industrial revolution; wooden boat construction on inland waterways; the history of opening bridges; and the L&LC.
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    industrial historian
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    Pluto

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  1. I have found the mention of fords, from the second edition of Brindley's 'History'. The best description of the operation of flash locks I have found is: Aufbau und Funktion einer historischen Stauschleuse in der Stecknitzfahrt, Patrick Keilholz und Bastian Albert , in Ifl vol.15, 2011, which has graphs showing the variation in river levels over time whilst a flash lock is in operation, attached below. J L Hogrewe, a Hanoverian engineer who wrote a book about English canals, published in 1780, had just produced plans for improving the Stecknitzfahrt at the request of George III. The ideas were not taken up, but Hogrewe did rebuild one of the flash locks, retaining its design as a flash lock. The French were also still building flash locks at this time. 2011 Aufbau und Funktion Dükerschleuse (dragged).pdf
  2. But that is the point of flash locks, you do not have to keep steady-state conditions. Boats operate on the flash of water, travelling in groups. Midland entrepreneurs were much less sure about the returns from inland waterways, which was why they went for the seven foot wide boat, unlike the more confident Lancs and Yorks investors, who saw the need for 14 feet wide canals. In the initial planning, fords were planned for roads crossing the new canal in order to keep down costs, and I would suspect that it was only during discussion that this was abandoned in favour of the canals we know today. This could well have happened between the original suggestion for a canal from the Potteries to the Trent, and the extended schene to the Mersey. I have attached a page showing the dimensions of the boats.
  3. The Smeaton/Brindley scheme does not appear to go further north than the Potteries. Note that he talks about fording places being 2ft 6in deep, with other documents published at this time suggest that the boat width would be 6 feet, the same as Brindley's boats using the Worsley mine tunnel. The use of fords instead of bridges could mean that flash locks were envisaged. However water mills were increasing in number and improving in design. 2 feet 6 ins depth would have been fine for the old undershot water wheel, but more efficient high breast water wheels were now beginning to be used, partly because of Smeaton's work on establishing the power from different types of wind and water mill. For a breast shot wheel, the fall would have to be at least five feet, and this would have meant that fords on a canal were not suitable, and chamber locks were required, making construction more expensive as bridges would also have to be used. The width of boat was increased to seven feet, half the width of many of the coastal and river boats of the time, on the basis that two narrow boats would fit into existing locks, such as on the Mersey & Irwell Navigation.
  4. The fireless remains of some engine boilers, at Central Wagon Works, Wigan, in the 1960s.
  5. This year it is 300 years since the birth of John Smeaton, the first 'civil engineer'. He worked on several canals, most notably the C&HN. The Institute of Civil Engineers has a couple of blogs about some of his work at https://www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/ice-blogs/ice-community-blog/john-smeaton-influence-spans-from-nasa-to-hit-song and https://www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/ice-blogs/ice-community-blog/peep-into-smeaton-world-invention-of-copying-press. Not much about canals, but they are of interest. I can add that this is a copy letter from the L&LC Foulridge office in 1919. Would it have been the first cycling permit for on the towpath?
  6. Post 1914 and the two world wars, all the decent timber in this country had been used, and subsequent agricultural economics did not encourage growing trees for timber. The result is today, this country is sadly lacking in decent home-grown timber.
  7. Average freight train loads were surprisingly low, and it was on the initial phase ex-colliery that bulk coal was in large trains. The figures I have are: 1871 56.9 tons 1880 61.4 tons 1890 63.6 tons 1900 63.3 tons 1911 95.9 tons Taken from: From Cain, Private Enterprise or Public Utility? Jour. Trans. Hist. 3rd ser 1980 So it was only by c1870 that a train carried more than a L&LC short boat. The First World War was probably the main factor in the decline of traffic on successful canals, when what became the Ministry of Transport in 1919 actively ignored or discouraged canal transport for much of the war. The lack of government support given to railways resulted in the sale of several large canal company fleets in 1921. The rise in road transport - many small purchasers of ex-army lorries charged rates which were uneconomic for large companies who now had to work to the eight hour day - and the decline in traditional industries resulted in the pre-2WW further decline in canals, and post war canalside collieries became worked out, and those producing gas coal had to stop with the introduction of North Sea gas. Railways only had a minor role in the decline of canal carrying.
  8. It could be 57ft 6in long as it was an A&CN short boat, rather than a L&LC short boat. That said, I don't know if the A&CN had boats specifically for the Bradford Canal trade. Having checked in the A&CN boat records I have, the following are the iron boats which they kept post 1921. A&CN iron fly boats on company’s books after 1921 1, short, built 1876, coal boat 5, long, built 1879 8, long, built 1877 10, long, built 1877 11, long, built 1877 12, long, built 1877 13, long, built 1878 14, long, built 1879 20, long, built 1877 21, short, built?, coal boat 27, short, built 1869, June 32, long, built 1871 59, barge, built 1875 60, barge, built 1875 61, barge, built 1875 62, barge, built 1875 68, short, built 1876, Pauline 73, long, built 1876 81, barge, built 1877 85, short, built 1878, Fair Maiden 94, long, built 1879 95, long, built 1879 96, long, built 1879 97, long, built 1879 99, long, built 1879, lengthened 1913, Water Wanderer
  9. I have just been sorting some of my digital archive, and have found these: a BW plan and section from 1986, and one from the 1838 Allgemeine Bauzeitung, with a translation of the text which went with it. 1838 General Building Journal.pdf
  10. The photo dates from 1956, when Coronation Road School, Crosby, hired Crucis, Plover and Darlington, for a trip to Boston, with 25 people on each boat. No on-board toilets seem to have been provided! A BBC crew started filming the trip, but the programme was cancelled. A newspaper report suggests they averaged about 80 miles per day, so no hanging about.
  11. The problem I have with such programmes is that I get telephoned by a researcher, spend an hour or so giving detailed and up-to-date historical information, and then they totally ignore it because it doesn't fit with the directors 'ideas'. When they used film, directors had a clear script to follow, nowadays the script is on the back of a fag packet and they take vast amounts of digital video and make it up when it comes to editing.
  12. The usual TV twaddle, completely lacking a detailed understanding of canal and industrial history, which could then be refined into something entertaining.
  13. This is the oldest Rochdale paddle gear I found when researching the paddle gear in 2004. It is on the water supply at Summit West. The ground plan of the stand is identical to the remaining indentations on some locks where new paddles have been installed. The XL file lists all the different types I found, and whether the lock had intermediate gate recesses for C&HN length boats. paddle:lock details.pdf You may find the text from my report on the Rochdale paddle gear of interest, along with incomplete detailed history of each lock. Lock details.pdf Report 2.docx
  14. Don't forget the Bridgewater six-planker motor conversions. I could only find this photo in the Waterways Archive collection. Note that the counter on Alice is formed by vertical planking fitted around the conventional horse boat stern.
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