4 ms·

Falkirk, Scotland, has a very fun alternative to canal locks, which doesn't entail losing nearly so much water: the Falkirk Wheel. https://www.scottishcanals.c

Falkirk, Scotland, has a very fun alternative to canal locks, which doesn't entail losing nearly so much water: the Falkirk Wheel. https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/visit/canals/visit-the-forth-clyde-canal/attractions/the-falkirk-wheel https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/visit/canals/visit-the-fort... Amusingly, the height the wheel lifts to is actually larger than the height the Panama Canal locks need to lift to. It's not got quite as much carrying capacity though.

ProllyInfamous 3y ago
Tom Scott did a video on this [1]. I'm only roughly approximating here, but that could probably lift just a dozen 40ft shipping containers each swing-up (perhaps, this is a wild estimate based visually only). [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w
- andrewaylett 3y ago
  Not even that, I suspect -- it'll hold four 66' boats, so maybe six containers in each caisson? The canals it joins are traditional British canals, they're quite restrictive. Scaling it up to cope with neo-panamax-sized ships is left as an exercise to the reader. If you do try, remember that the Panama canal allows boats with a ~15m draft and just short of 60m height above the waterline, you're probably going to want more of a see-saw than a full wheel. (Also: correcting my comment above, the wheel only lifts to 24m: there are locks to get the rest of the way up (another 11m), avoiding needing to demolish a section of the antonine wall. So the wheel itself lifts slightly less height than the 26m on the Panama canal)
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    I re-watched the video AFTER commenting (above); definitely wouldn't hold twelve 40ft containers (on each side)... plus it seems to have a 500Ton MAX (based on Tom's video about each side's perfectly-balanced weight, due to displacement).

4 ms·

Falkirk, Scotland, has a very fun alternative to canal locks, which doesn't entail losing nearly so much water: the Falkirk Wheel. https://www.scottishcanals.c

by andrewaylett 3y ago

ProllyInfamous 3y ago
Tom Scott did a video on this [1]. I'm only roughly approximating here, but that could probably lift just a dozen 40ft shipping containers each swing-up (perhaps, this is a wild estimate based visually only). [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w
- andrewaylett 3y ago
  Not even that, I suspect -- it'll hold four 66' boats, so maybe six containers in each caisson? The canals it joins are traditional British canals, they're quite restrictive. Scaling it up to cope with neo-panamax-sized ships is left as an exercise to the reader. If you do try, remember that the Panama canal allows boats with a ~15m draft and just short of 60m height above the waterline, you're probably going to want more of a see-saw than a full wheel. (Also: correcting my comment above, the wheel only lifts to 24m: there are locks to get the rest of the way up (another 11m), avoiding needing to demolish a section of the antonine wall. So the wheel itself lifts slightly less height than the 26m on the Panama canal)
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    I re-watched the video AFTER commenting (above); definitely wouldn't hold twelve 40ft containers (on each side)... plus it seems to have a 500Ton MAX (based on Tom's video about each side's perfectly-balanced weight, due to displacement).