When Bob and I took our sneak peak at the Peterborough Lift Lock, we were lucky enough to see a tour boat actually being lowered.
The pictures show the process. The Lift Lock, rising 65 vertical feet, is the highest of its kind in the world. The operation is ingenious. It works like a hydraulic scale. The tour boat entered a chamber (think bread pan) filled with water at the top of the lock. Parallel to that chamber, but 65 feet below, was an identical chamber filled with water. When the upper chamber was filled with an additional foot of water, it became heavier than the bottom one, so it started moving down, which forced the bottom chamber up. When the chamber with the tour boat reached the bottom of the lock, a little gate released the additional foot of water. The chambers were now equalized again, the front gate opened, and the tour boat came out into the canal below.
# posted by Second Wind @ 9:59 AM
When Bob and I took our sneak peak at the Peterborough Lift Lock, we were lucky enough to see a tour boat actually being lowered. The pictures show the process. The Lift Lock, rising 65 vertical feet, is the highest of its kind in the world. The operation is ingenious. It works like a hydraulic scale. The tour boat entered a chamber (think bread pan) filled with water at the top of the lock. Parallel to that chamber, but 65 feet below, was an identical chamber filled with water. When the upper chamber was filled with an additional foot of water, it became heavier than the bottom one, so it started moving down, which forced the bottom chamber up. When the chamber with the tour boat reached the bottom of the lock, a little gate released the additional foot of water. The chambers were now equalized again, the front gate opened, and the tour boat came out into the canal below.
