Water slope
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A Water Slope is a type of Canal inclined plane built to carry boats from a canal or river at one elevation up to or down to a canal or river at another elevation.
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[edit] Operation
The Water Slope uses a moveable gate in a sloping channel invented by the German engineer Julius Greve at the end of the 19th century and realised by the French engineer Jean Aubert in the 1970s. To ascend the slope the gate can be opened to allow a boat to enter the concrete channel. The gate then closes off the bottom of the channel and seals off a wedge of water on which the boat is floating, within the channel. The moveable gate is drawn up the sloping concrete channel pushing the wedge of water before it until reaching the upper water level. The water level in the wedge is equalised with that of the upper canal and the boat is then allowed to float free.[1]
Descending the water slope is the reverse of the ascent.
[edit] Water Slopes in use
The two French water slopes are in the South. The Montech water slope (Pente d'eau de Montech) is on the canal latéral à la Garonne, and the Fonsérannes Water Slope is near Béziers on the Canal du Midi.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Tew, David (1984). Canal Inclines and Lifts. Sutton Books. ISBN 0-8629-9031-9.
- Uhlemann, Hans-Joachim (2002). Canal lifts and inclines of the world, English Translation, Internat. ISBN 0-9543-1811-0.
[edit] References
- ^ Hans-Joachim Uhlemann. Canal Lifts and Inclines of the World.
