A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats , ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways . The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock , a boat lift , or on a canal inclined plane , it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson ) that rises and falls.
154-486: Bingley Five-Rise Locks is a staircase lock on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Bingley ( grid reference SE107399 ). As the name implies, a boat passing through the lock is lifted or lowered in five stages. In effect the five-rise consists of five locks connected without intermediate "ponds": the lower gate of each chamber forms the upper gate of the chamber below. There are therefore five chambers, and six gates. As
308-660: A barge traffic problem at the Shanyang Yundao section of the Grand Canal , as ships often became wrecked while passing the double slipways and were robbed of the tax grain by local bandits . The historical text of the Song Shi (compiled in 1345) stated that in 984: Qiao Weiyue also built five double slipways (lit. dams ) between Anbei and Huaishi (or, the quays on the Huai waterfront). Each of these had ten lanes for
462-419: A fish ladder are often taken to counteract this. Navigation locks have also potential to be operated as fishways to provide increased access for a range of biota. Locks can be built side by side on the same waterway. This is variously called doubling , pairing , or twinning . The Panama Canal has three sets of double locks. Doubling gives advantages in speed, avoiding hold-ups at busy times and increasing
616-569: A boat in a lock. One incident, which took place in June 1873 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, involved the boat the Henry C. Flagg and its drunk captain. That boat was already leaking; the crew, having partially pumped the water out, entered Lock 74, moving in front of another boat. Because they failed to snub the boat, it crashed into and knocked out the downstream gates. The outrush of water from
770-470: A boat in the lock. A 200-ton boat moving at a few miles an hour could destroy the lock gate. To prevent this, a rope was wound around the snubbing post as the boat entered the lock. Pulling on the rope slowed the boat, due to the friction of the rope against the post. A rope 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (6.4 cm) in diameter and about 60 feet (18 meters) long was typically used on the Erie Canal to snub
924-500: A boat travelling upstream, the process is reversed; the boat enters the empty lock, and then the chamber is filled by opening a valve that allows water to enter the chamber from the upper level. The whole operation will usually take between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the size of the lock and whether the water in the lock was originally set at the boat's level. Boaters approaching a lock are usually pleased to meet another boat coming towards them, because this boat will have just exited
1078-528: A broad canal for more than one boat to be in a staircase at the same time, but managing this without waste of water requires expertise. On English canals, a staircase of more than two chambers is usually staffed: the lockkeepers at Bingley (looking after both the "5-rise" and the "3-rise") ensure that there are no untoward events and that boats are moved through as speedily and efficiently as possible. Such expertise permits miracles of boat balletics: boats travelling in opposite directions can pass each other halfway up
1232-453: A chain, the "dog-teeth" mutually engaging with each other, so that by due revolution everything comes back to its original starting point. In the Song period (and once during the earlier Tang period), the odometer device was combined with the south-pointing chariot device, which was probably first invented by the ancient Chinese mechanical engineer Ma Jun (200–265). The south-pointing chariot
1386-586: A device with a siphon hose by the 7th century. The earliest reference to Greek Fire in China was made in 917, written by Wu Renchen in his Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms . In 919, the siphon projector-pump was used to spread the 'fierce fire oil' that could not be doused with water, as recorded by Lin Yu in his Wuyue Beishi , hence the first credible Chinese reference to the flamethrower employing
1540-426: A flight of locks is simply a series of locks in close-enough proximity to be identified as a single group. For many reasons, a flight of locks is preferable to the same number of locks spread more widely: crews are put ashore and picked up once, rather than multiple times; transition involves a concentrated burst of effort, rather than a continually interrupted journey; a lock keeper may be stationed to help crews through
1694-412: A gate, or pair of half-gates, traditionally made of oak or elm but now usually made of steel ). The most common arrangement, usually called miter gates , was invented by Leonardo da Vinci sometime around the late 15th century. On the old Erie Canal , there was a danger of injury when operating the paddles: water, on reaching a certain position, would push the paddles with a force which could tear
SECTION 10
#17327981056321848-782: A lake with floating weeds and rotting logs, thus allowing them to board their ships and gain a strategic victory. In 1161, gunpowder bombs and paddle wheel crafts were used effectively by the Song Chinese at the Battle of Tangdao and the Battle of Caishi along the Yangtze River against the Jurchen Jin dynasty during the Jin–Song Wars . The Jurchen invasion, led by Wanyan Liang (the Prince of Hailing) , failed to conquer
2002-421: A lock. To help boats traveling downstream exit a lock, the locksman would sometimes open the paddles to create a swell, which would help "flush" the boat out of the lock. A boatsman might ask for a back swell, that is, to open and shut the paddles a few times to create some waves, to help him get off the bank where he was stuck. If boats ran aground (from being overloaded) they sometimes asked passing crews to tell
2156-458: A long tradition in China. The Song engineer Su Song , who constructed a hydraulically-powered astronomical clocktower , admitted that he and his contemporaries were building upon the achievements of the ancients such as Zhang Heng (78–139), an astronomer, inventor, and early master of mechanical gears whose armillary sphere was automatically rotated by a waterwheel and clepsydra timer. The application of movable type printing advanced
2310-623: A man can be in his cabin without others on board realizing it, and they do not see him until the vessel has arrived in some port. The sailors also have their children in such cabins; and (in some parts of the ship) they sew garden herbs, vegetables, and ginger in wooden tubs. The Commander of such a vessel is a great Emir ; when he lands, the archers and the Ethiops (i.e. black slaves, yet in China these men-at-arms would have most likely been Malays ) march before him bearing javelins and swords, with drums beating and trumpets blowing. When he arrives at
2464-585: A more direct route to be taken. A pound lock is most commonly used on canals and rivers today. A pound lock has a chamber with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound. In contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock . Pound locks were first used in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE), having been pioneered by the Song politician and naval engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. They replaced earlier double slipways that had caused trouble and are mentioned by
2618-431: A night over a period of five years. Unfortunately Shen had many political rivals at court who were determined to sabotage his work. The court fully accepted their corrections to lunar and solar error, but only partially adopted Shen and Wei's corrected plotting of the planetary orbital paths and various speeds. Su Song, one of Shen Kuo's political rivals at court, wrote a famous pharmaceutical treatise in 1070 known as
2772-525: A revolving repository in Ganzhou of Gansu province that he called a 'kiosque': In another temple there is an octagonal kiosque, having from the top to the bottom fifteen stories. Each story contains apartments decorated with lacquer in the Cathayan manner, with ante-rooms and verandahs ...It is entirely made of polished wood, and this again gilded so admirably that it seems to be of solid gold. There
2926-430: A short way into the chamber from below the upper gates. Allowing the rear of the boat to "hang" on the cill is the main danger when descending a lock, and the position of the forward edge of the cill is usually marked on the lock side by a white line. The edge of the cill is usually curved, protruding less in the center than at the edges. In some locks, there is a piece of oak about 9 in (23 cm) thick which protects
3080-480: A small boat fitted with a rudder, and a rowing boat ). These vessels are nowhere made except in the city of Zayton ( Quanzhou ) in China, or at Sin-Kilan, which is the same as Sin al-Sin ( Guangzhou ). Ibn Battuta then went on describing the means of their construction, and accurate depictions of separate bulkhead compartments in the hulls of the ships: This is the manner in which they are made; two (parallel) walls of very thick wooden (planking) are raised, and across
3234-480: A staircase lock can be used as an emergency dry dock). To avoid these mishaps, it is usual to have the whole staircase empty before starting to descend, or full before starting to ascend, apart from the initial chamber. One striking difference in using a staircase of either type (compared with a single lock, or a flight) is the best sequence for letting boats through. In a single lock (or a flight with room for boats to pass) boats should ideally alternate in direction. In
SECTION 20
#17327981056323388-404: A staircase, however, it is quicker for a boat to follow a previous one going in the same direction. Partly for this reason staircase locks such as Grindley Brook, Foxton, Watford and Bratch are supervised by lockkeepers, at least during the main cruising season, they normally try to alternate as many boats up, followed by down as there are chambers in the flight. As with a flight, it is possible on
3542-547: A steel flint wheel , which in turn created sparks that ignited the train of fuses for the land mines. Furthermore, the Song employed the earliest known gunpowder-propelled rockets in warfare during the late 13th century, its earliest form being the archaic fire arrow . When the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell to the Jurchens in 1126, it was written by Xia Shaozeng that 20,000 fire arrows were handed over to
3696-454: A swell to anyone to help them on the way, but some would ask for money for the swell. The Erie Canal management did not like swelling for two reasons. First, it used too much water lowering the water on the pound above sometimes causing boats to run aground. In addition, it raised the water level on the pound below, causing some boats to strike bridges or get stuck. On horse-drawn and mule-drawn canals, snubbing posts were used to slow or stop
3850-422: A wide variety of agricultural tools, and by new canals linking major centers of iron and steel production to the capital city's bustling market. The many uses for manufactured iron products in the Song period included iron for weapons, implements, coins, architectural elements, musical bells, artistic statues, and components for machinery such as the hydraulic -powered trip hammer , which had been known since
4004-426: Is a normal top gate, and the intermediate gates are all as tall as the bottom gate). As there is no intermediate pound, a chamber can only be filled by emptying the one above, or emptied by filling the one below: thus the whole staircase has to be full of water (except for the bottom chamber) before a boat starts to ascend, or empty (except for the top chamber) before a boat starts to descend. In an "apparent" staircase
4158-757: Is a sculpture from a cave in Sichuan , dating to 1128, that portrays a figure carrying a vase-shaped bombard , firing flames and a cannonball. However, the oldest existent archaeological discovery of a metal barrel handgun is the Heilongjiang hand cannon from the Chinese Heilongjiang excavation, dated to 1288. The Chinese also discovered the explosive potential of packing hollowed cannonball shells with gunpowder. Written later by Jiao Yu in his Huolongjing (mid 14th century), this manuscript recorded an earlier Song-era cast-iron cannon known as
4312-429: Is a tourist attraction in the area. Boats that pass through often attract a crowd of gongoozlers . The staircase underwent extensive restoration in 2004 and again in 2006, when the lock gates and paddles were replaced. As is expected with such a feat of engineering it requires a lot of maintenance and is often on British Waterways' list of winter stoppages for maintenance. In January 2012 the locks were drained to allow
4466-461: Is a vault below it. An iron shaft fixed in the center of the kiosque traverses it from bottom to top, and the lower end of this works in an iron plate, whilst the upper end bears on strong supports in the roof of the edifice which contains this pavilion. Thus a person in the vault can with a trifling exertion cause this great kiosque to revolve. All the carpenters, smiths, and painters in the world would learn something in their trades by coming here! In
4620-403: Is blowing from one side or the other. When the ships cast anchor, the sails are left standing in the wind. Each of these ships is worked by 1,000 men, 600 sailors and 400 marines , among whom there are archers and crossbowmen furnished with shields, and men who throw (pots of) naptha . Each great vessel is followed by three others, a 'nisfi', a 'thoulthi' and a 'roubi' (f endnote: a pinnace ,
4774-443: Is only a staircase if successive lock chambers share a gate (i.e. do not have separate top and bottom gates with a pound between them). Most flights are not staircases, because each chamber is a separate lock (with its own upper and lower gates), there is a navigable pound (however short) between each pair of locks, and the locks are operated in the conventional way. However, some flights include (or consist entirely of) staircases. On
Bingley Five Rise Locks - Misplaced Pages Continue
4928-519: Is wound and powered by treadle motion. In this device the ramping arm of the flyer was activated simultaneously by a subsidiary belt drive. This machine was portrayed in an illustration of the Geng Zhi Tu book of 1237, and again a more elaborate illustration was provided in a 17th-century book. Qin Guan's 1090 book stated that: The pulley (bearing the eccentric lug) is provided with a groove for
5082-655: The Dream Pool Essays , is a prime example, an inventor and pioneering figure who introduced many new advances in Chinese astronomy and mathematics , establishing the concept of true north in the first known experiments with the magnetic compass . However, commoner craftsmen such as Bi Sheng (972–1051), the inventor of movable type printing (in a form predating the printing press of Johannes Gutenberg ), were also heavily involved in technical innovations. The ingenuity of advanced mechanical engineering had
5236-475: The Bencao Tujing , which included related subjects on botany , zoology , metallurgy , and mineralogy . This treatise included many medicinal applications, including the use of ephedrin as a pharmaceutical drug. He also was the author of a large celestial atlas of five different star maps , and his extensive written and illustrative work in cartography helped solve a heated border dispute between
5390-881: The Bollène lock on the River Rhône has a fall of at least 23 m (75 ft), the Leerstetten, Eckersmühlen and Hilpoltstein locks on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal have a fall of 24.67 m (80.9 ft), each and the Oskemen Lock on the Irtysh River in Kazakhstan has a drop of 42 m (138 ft). The natural extension of the flash lock , or staunch, was to provide an upper gate (or pair of gates) to form an intermediate "pound" which
5544-472: The Caledonian Canal the lock gates were operated by man-powered capstans , one connected by chains to open the gate and another to draw it closed. By 1968 these had been replaced by hydraulic power acting through steel rams. The construction of locks (or weirs and dams) on rivers obstructs the passage of fish. Some fish such as lampreys, trout and salmon go upstream to spawn. Measures such as
5698-476: The Grand Union . Operation of a staircase is more involved than a flight. Inexperienced boaters may find operating staircase locks difficult. The key worries (apart from simply being paralysed with indecision) are either sending down more water than the lower chambers can cope with (flooding the towpath, or sending a wave along the canal) or completely emptying an intermediate chamber (although this shows that
5852-483: The Kennet and Avon Canal . Technology of the Song dynasty#Civil engineering The Song dynasty ( Chinese : 宋朝 ; 960–1279 CE) witnessed many substantial scientific and technological advances in Chinese history . Some of these advances and innovations were the products of talented statesmen and scholar-officials drafted by the government through imperial examinations . Shen Kuo (1031–1095), author of
6006-722: The Rochdale Canal , which both have a rise of nearly 20 feet (6.1 m). Both locks are amalgamations of two separate locks, which were combined when the canals were restored to accommodate changes in road crossings. By comparison, the Carrapatelo and Valeira locks on the Douro river in Portugal, which are 279 feet (85 m) long and 39 feet (12 m) wide, have maximum lifts of 115 and 108 feet (35 and 33 m) respectively. The two Ardnacrusha locks near Limerick on
6160-598: The Song dynasty (960–1279 CE). The Songshi or History of the Song Dynasty, volume 307, biography 66, records how Qiao Weiyue, a high-ranking tax administrator, was frustrated at the frequent losses incurred when his grain barges were wrecked on the West River near Huai'an in Jiangsu . The soldiers at one double slipway, he discovered, had plotted with bandits to wreck heavy imperial barges so that they could steal
6314-818: The Song dynasty under the reign of Emperor Taizu , who ordered the mass printing of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka scriptures. Furthermore, the oldest surviving rotating book case dates to the Song period (12th century), found at the Longxing Monastery of Zhengding , Hebei province. However, there were nine prominently known revolving repositories during the Song period, and one of them was even featured in an illustration of Li Jie's book Yingzao Fashi ('Treatise on Architectural Methods') of 1103. The rotating repository of 1119 in Kaifu Temple near Changsha had five wheels which all turned together, and
Bingley Five Rise Locks - Misplaced Pages Continue
6468-586: The Southern Tang state by 976, early Song naval forces confronted them on the Yangtze River in 975. Southern Tang forces attempted to use flamethrowers against the Song navy, but were accidentally consumed by their own fire when violent winds swept in their direction. Although the destructive effects of gunpowder were described in the earlier Tang dynasty by a Daoist alchemist , the earliest-known existent written formulas for gunpowder come from
6622-541: The Wujing Zongyao text of 1044, which described explosive bombs hurled from catapults. The earliest developments of the gun barrel and the projectile-fire cannon were found in late Song China. The first art depiction of the Chinese ' fire lance ' (a combination of a temporary-fire flamethrower and gun) was from a Buddhist mural painting of Dunhuang , dated circa 950. These 'fire-lances' were widespread in use by
6776-492: The sluice gate, the canal lock , and flash lock had been known since at least the 1st century BCE (as sources then alluded that they were not new innovations), during the ancient Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). During the Song dynasty the pound lock was first invented in 984 by the Assistant Commissioner of Transport for Huainan , the engineer Qiao Weiyue. In his day, the Chinese became concerned with
6930-424: The 'flying-cloud thunderclap eruptor' (fei yun pi-li pao). The manuscript stated that: The shells are made of cast iron, as large as a bowl and shaped like a ball. Inside they contain half a pound of 'magic' gunpowder. They are sent flying towards the enemy camp from an eruptor; and when they get there a sound like a thunder-clap is heard, and flashes of light appear. If ten of these shells are fired successfully into
7084-428: The 11th century. The work of Bi Sheng was written of by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays (Mengxi Bitan). Movable type, alongside woodblock printing , increased literacy with the mass production of printed materials. This meant that parents could encourage sons to learn to read and write and therefore be able to take the imperial examination and become part of the growing learned bureaucracy. Movable type printing
7238-478: The 1st century BCE during the ancient Han dynasty, and used extensively during the Song. Due to the enormous amount of production, the economic historian Robert Hartwell noted that Chinese iron and coal production in the following 12th century was equal to if not greater than England's iron and coal production in the early phase of the Industrial Revolution during the late 18th century. However,
7392-495: The Chief Chamberlain Lu Daolong presented specifications for the construction of odometers as follows: [...] What follows is a long dissertation made by the Chief Chamberlain Lu Daolong on the ranging measurements and sizes of wheels and gears. However, the concluding paragraph provides description at the end of how the device ultimately functions: When the middle horizontal wheel has made 1 revolution,
7546-411: The Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his book Dream Pool Essays (published in 1088), and fully described in the Chinese historical text Song Shi (compiled in 1345): The distance between the two locks was rather more than 50 paces, and the whole space was covered with a great roof like a shed. The gates were 'hanging gates'; when they were closed the water accumulated like a tide until
7700-511: The Chinese of the Song period did not harness the energy potential of coal in ways that would generate power mechanically, as in the later Industrial Revolution that would originate in the West . There were certain administrative prefectures during the Song era where the Chinese iron industry was mostly concentrated. For example, the poet and statesman Su Shi wrote a memorial to the throne in 1078 that specified 36 ironwork smelters, each employing
7854-506: The Deputy Transport Commissioner of Zhejiang , Wu Ge, had paddle wheel warships constructed with a total of nine wheels and others with thirteen wheels. However, there were paddle wheel ships in the Song that were so large that 12 wheels were featured on each side of the vessel. In 1135 the famous general Yue Fei (1103–1142) ambushed a force of rebels under Yang Yao, entangling their paddle wheel craft by filling
SECTION 50
#17327981056328008-567: The Grand Union (Leicester) Canal, the Watford flight consists of a four-chamber staircase and three separate locks; and the Foxton flight consists entirely of two adjacent 5-chamber staircases. Where a very steep gradient has to be climbed, a lock staircase is used. There are two types of staircase, "real" and "apparent". A "real" staircase can be thought of as a "compressed" flight, where
8162-770: The Jurchens in their conquest. An even earlier Chinese text of the Wujing Zongyao ("Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques"), written in 1044 by the Song scholars Zeng Kongliang and Yang Weide, described the use of three spring or triple bow arcuballista that fired arrow bolts holding gunpowder packets near the head of the arrow. Going back yet even farther, the Wu Li Xiao Shi (1630, second edition 1664) of Fang Yizhi stated that fire arrows were presented to Emperor Taizu of Song (r. 960–976) in 960. In ancient China,
8316-510: The Leeds Liverpool canal is a wide canal, the chambers are slightly more than 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, and each gate consists of two half-gates, "hinged" from opposite sides of the canal. Each half gate is slightly more than 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, so that the two halves close in a "V" shape (pointing "upstream"). Water pressure on the uphill side of the gate keeps it tightly closed until the water levels on either side are equal, when
8470-483: The North" and retired in 2017 as the country's longest-serving lock keeper. The locks also have an overflow 'by-wash' at the side, which water runs down when the lock is not open. When a descending boat enters each lock chamber the water level rises slightly and the excess flows via an overflow channel at the side which runs into the main by-wash. The structure is Grade I listed . The five-rise opened on 21 March 1774 and
8624-522: The Shannon navigation in Ireland have a rise of 100 feet (30 m). The upper chamber rises 60 feet (18 m) and is connected to the lower chamber by a tunnel, which when descending does not become visible until the chamber is nearly empty. A pound is the level stretch of water between two locks (also known as a reach ). The cill , also spelled sill , is a narrow horizontal ledge protruding
8778-471: The Song dynasty and its Khitan neighbor of the Liao dynasty . However, Su was most famous for his hydraulic-powered astronomical clock tower , crowned with a mechanically driven armillary sphere , which was erected in the capital city of Kaifeng in the year 1088. Su's clock tower employed the escapement mechanism two centuries before it was applied in clocks of Europe. Su's clock tower also featured
8932-420: The Song dynasty built upon the efforts of earlier Chinese dynasties, while new methods were incorporated. The Chinese of the ancient Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) figured out how to create steel by smelting together the carbon intermediary of wrought iron and cast iron by the 1st century BCE. However, there were two new Chinese innovations of the Song dynasty to create steel during the 11th century. This
9086-528: The Song dynasty. Although literary references for mechanical revolving repositories and book cases of Buddhist temples trace back to at least 823 during the Tang dynasty , they came to prominence during the Song dynasty. The invention of the revolving book case is considered to have happened earlier, and is credited to the layman Fu Xi in 544. Revolving bookcases were popularized in Buddhist monasteries during
9240-482: The Song era. Shen is famous for discovering the concept of true north and magnetic declination towards the North Pole by calculating a more accurate measurement of the astronomical meridian , and fixing the calculated position of the pole star that had shifted over the centuries. This allowed sailors to navigate the seas more accurately with the magnetic needle compass , also first described by Shen. Shen
9394-619: The Southern Song. In 1183, the Nanjing naval commander Chen Tang was given a reward for constructing ninety paddle wheel craft and other warships. In 1176, Emperor Xiaozong of Song (r. 1162–1189) issued an imperial order to the Nanjing official Guo Gang (who desired to convert damaged paddle wheel craft into junk ships and galleys ) not to limit the number of paddle wheel craft in the navy's dockyards, since he had high esteem for
SECTION 60
#17327981056329548-845: The Tian Sheng reign period (1023–1031) freed up the use of five hundred working laborers at the canal each year, amounting to the saving of up to 1,250,000 strings of cash annually. He wrote that the old method of hauling boats over limited the size of the cargo to 300 tan of rice per vessel (roughly 21 long tons /21,000 kg ), but after the pound locks were introduced, boats carrying 400 tan (roughly 28 long tons/28,000 kg) could then be used. Shen wrote that by his time (c. 1080) government boats could carry cargo weights of up to 700 tan (49.5 long tons/50,300 kg), while private boats could hold as much as 800 bags, each weighing 2 tan (i.e. 113 long tons/115,000 kg). Shen Kuo also noted that proper use of sluice gates at irrigation canals
9702-475: The advent of canals in Britain. The sides of the turf-lock are sloping so, when full, the lock is quite wide. Consequently, this type of lock needs more water to operate than vertical-sided brick- or stone-walled locks. On British canals and waterways most turf-sided locks have been subsequently rebuilt in brick or stone, and so only a few good examples survive, such as at Garston Lock , and Monkey Marsh Lock , on
9856-595: The already widespread use of woodblock printing to educate and amuse Confucian students and the masses. The application of new weapons employing the use of gunpowder enabled the Song to ward off its militant enemies—the Liao , Western Xia , and Jin with weapons such as cannons —until its collapse to the Mongol forces of Kublai Khan in the late 13th century. Notable advances in civil engineering , nautics , and metallurgy were made in Song China, as well as
10010-399: The ancient Han dynasty , the Song Shi (compiled in 1345) provides a much greater description and more in-depth view of the device than earlier Chinese sources. The Song Shi states: The odometer. [The mile-measuring carriage] is painted red, with pictures of flowers and birds on the four sides, and constructed in two storeys, handsomely adorned with carvings. At the completion of every li,
10164-469: The barges to go up and down. Their cargoes of imperial tax-grain were heavy, and as they were passing over they often came to grief and were damaged or wrecked, with loss of the grain and peculation by a cabal of the workers in league with local bandits hidden nearby. Qiao Weiyue therefore first ordered the construction of two gates at the third dam along the West River (near Huaiyin). The distance between
10318-471: The bottom cill at all but the higher tides – the new bottom chamber rises just far enough to get the boat over the original lock cill. In China, the recently completed Three Gorges Dam includes a double five-step staircase for large ships, and a ship lift for vessels of less than 3000 metric tons. Examples of "apparent" staircases are Foxton Locks and Watford Locks on the Leicester Branch of
10472-413: The caerulean sea. At daybreak, when the gong sounds aboard the ship, the animals can drink their fill, and crew and passengers alike forget all dangers. To those on board everything is hidden and lost in space, mountains, landmarks, and the countries of foreigners. The shipmaster may say 'To make such and such a country, with a favourable wind, in so many days, we should sight such and such a mountain, (then)
10626-641: The canal would cause frequent interruptions of the heavy road traffic. It can be emptied by pumping – but as this uses a lot of electricity the method used when water supplies are adequate is to drain the lock to a nearby burn . In 2016 the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium took over the title of the world's largest lock from the Berendrecht Lock in the same port and still has
10780-399: The carriage will have gone 1 li and the wooden figure in the lower story will strike the drum. When the upper horizontal wheel has made 1 revolution, the carriage will have gone 10 li and the figure in the upper storey will strike the bell. The number of wheels used, great and small, is 8 inches (200 mm) in all, with a total of 285 teeth. Thus the motion is transmitted as if by the links of
10934-599: The chambers so that some water from the emptying chamber helps to fill the other. This facility has long been withdrawn on the English canals, although the disused paddle gear can sometimes be seen, as at Hillmorton on the Oxford Canal . Elsewhere they are still in use; a pair of twinned locks was opened in 2014 on the Dortmund–Ems Canal near Münster , Germany. The once-famous staircase at Lockport, New York ,
11088-631: The chambers still have common gates, but the water does not pass directly from one chamber to the next, going instead via side ponds. This means it is not necessary to ensure that the flight is full or empty before starting. Examples of famous "real" staircases in England are Bingley and Grindley Brook . Two-rise staircases are more common: Snakeholme Lock and Struncheon Hill Lock on the Driffield Navigation were converted to staircase locks after low water levels hindered navigation over
11242-404: The chance of a boat finding a lock set in its favour. There can also be water savings: the locks may be of different sizes, so that a small boat does not need to empty a large lock; or each lock may be able to act as a side pond (water-saving basin) for the other. In this latter case, the word used is usually "twinned": here indicating the possibility of saving water by synchronising the operation of
11396-559: The chemical solution of Greek fire (see also Pen Huo Qi ). Lin Yu mentioned also that the 'fierce fire oil' derived ultimately from one of China's maritime contacts in the 'southern seas', Arabia ( Dashiguo ). In the Battle of Langshan Jiang in 919, the naval fleet of the Wenmu King from Wuyue defeated a Huainan army from the Wu state ; Wenmu's success was facilitated by the use of 'fire oil' ('huo you') to burn their fleet, signifying
11550-423: The complications of working a staircase lock and because so many boaters (both first-time hirers and new owners) are inexperienced, a full-time lock keeper is employed and the locks are padlocked out of hours. Barry Whitelock, the lock keeper, worked here for almost 30 years, becoming closely associated with the flight. Barry was awarded an MBE in the 2007 New Year Honours List for "Services to Inland Waterways in
11704-523: The concept has been suggested in a number of cases, the only example in the world of a drop lock that has actually been constructed is at Dalmuir on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland. This lock, of the single-chamber type, was incorporated during the restoration of the canal, to allow the replacement of a swing bridge (on a busy A road) by a fixed bridge, and so answer criticisms that the restoration of
11858-437: The court with gifts of paper-printed money wrapped in paper envelopes . During the Song dynasty, independent and government sponsored industries were developed to meet the needs of a growing population that had reached over 100 million. For example, for the printing of paper money alone, the Song court established several government-run mints and factories in the cities of Huizhou , Chengdu , Hangzhou , and Anqi. The size of
12012-515: The deposit was not as thick as what the peasants call 'steamed cake silt' (so they were not satisfied). Finally the government got tired of it and stopped. In this connection I remember reading the Jiayipan of Bai Juyi (the poet) in which he says that he once had a position as Traffic Commissioner. As the Bian River was getting so shallow that it hindered the passage of boats he suggested that
12166-563: The dominant types of printing methods for centuries, the European printing press (employing the Hellenistic screw -press) was eventually adopted by East Asian countries. For printing, the mass production of paper for writing was already well established in China. The papermaking process had been perfected and standardized by the Han dynasty court eunuch Cai Lun (50–121) in 105, and
12320-455: The double slipways) the previous corruption was completely eliminated, and the passage of the boats went on without the slightest impediment. This practice became widespread, and was even written of by the Chinese polymath scientist Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays (1088). Shen Kuo wrote that the establishment of pound lock gates at Zhenzhou (presumably Kuozhou along the Yangtze ) during
12474-399: The earliest known endless power-transmitting chain drive in the world, as outlined in his horological treatise of 1092. The cases of these two men display the eagerness of the Song in drafting highly skilled officials who were knowledgeable in the various sciences which could ultimately benefit the administration, the military, the economy, and the people. Intellectual men of letters like
12628-444: The early 12th century, featuring hollowed bamboo poles as tubes to fire sand particles (to blind and choke), lead pellets, bits of sharp metal and pottery shards, and finally large gunpowder-propelled arrows and rocket weaponry. Eventually, perishable bamboo was replaced with hollow tubes of cast iron, and so too did the terminology of this new weapon change, from 'fire-spear' ('huo qiang') to 'fire-tube' ('huo tong'). This ancestor to
12782-504: The enemy camp, the whole place will be set ablaze... As noted before, the change in terminology for these new weapons during the Song period were gradual. The early Song cannons were at first termed the same way as the Chinese trebuchet catapult . A later Ming dynasty scholar known as Mao Yuanyi would explain this use of terminology and true origins of the cannon in his text of the Wubei Zhi , written in 1628: The Song people used
12936-468: The fast assault craft that won the Chinese victory at Caishi. However, paddle wheel craft found other uses besides effective assaults in warfare. The Arab or Persian Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou , the Muslim Pu Shougeng (who served from 1250 to 1275) noted that paddle wheel ships were also used by the Chinese as tugboats for towing . The art of metallurgy during
13090-404: The field of manufacturing textiles , Joseph Needham (1900–1995) wrote that the Chinese invented the quilling -wheel by the 12th century, and wrote the mechanical belt drive was known since the 11th century. Qin Guan's book Can Shu (Book of Sericulture ) of 1090 described a silk -reeling machine with an oscillating 'proto-flyer', as the apparatus of the main reel of which the silk is bound
13244-406: The first Chinese use of gunpowder in a battle. The Chinese applied the use of double- piston bellows to pump petrol out of a single cylinder (with an upstroke and downstroke), lit at the end by a slow-burning gunpowder match to fire a continuous stream of flame. This device was featured in description and illustration of the Wujing Zongyao military manuscript of 1044. In the suppression of
13398-452: The first to solve the problem of keeping the Nile free of salt water when his engineers invented the lock around 274/273 BC. All pound locks have three elements: The principle of operating a lock is simple. For instance, if a boat travelling downstream finds the lock already full of water: If the lock were empty, the boat would have had to wait 5 to 10 minutes while the lock was filled. For
13552-617: The first true pound lock was built in 1396 at Damme near Bruges , Belgium. The Italian Bertola da Novate (c. 1410–1475) constructed 18 pound locks on the Naviglio di Bereguardo (part of the Milan canal system sponsored by Francesco Sforza ) between 1452 and 1458. In Ancient Egypt, the river-locks was probably part of the Canal of the Pharaohs : Ptolemy II is credited by some for being
13706-425: The flight quickly; and where water is in short supply, a single pump can recycle water to the top of the whole flight. The need for a flight may be determined purely by the lie of the land, but it is possible to group locks purposely into flights by using cuttings or embankments to "postpone" the height change. Examples: Caen Hill locks, Devizes . "Flight" is not synonymous with "Staircase" (see below). A set of locks
13860-518: The form of the now-disused Écluse des Lorraines , connecting the Canal latéral à la Loire with the River Allier . A drop lock can consist of two conventional lock chambers leading to a sump pound, or a single long chamber incorporating the sump – although the term properly applies only to the second case. As the pounds at either end of the structure are at the same height, the lock can only be emptied either by allowing water to run to waste from
14014-451: The gate can be opened and the boat moved to the next chamber (see canal locks for more information on how a lock is constructed and operated). The five-rise is the steepest flight of locks in the UK, with a gradient of about 1:5 (a rise of 59 ft 2 in (18.03 m) over a distance of 320 ft (98 m)). The intermediate and bottom gates are the tallest in the country. Because of
14168-455: The guesthouse where he is to stay, they set up their lances on each side of the gate, and mount guard throughout his visit. During the Song dynasty there was also great amount of attention given to the building of efficient automotive vessels known as paddle wheel craft . The latter had been known in China perhaps since the 5th century, and certainly by the Tang dynasty in 784 with the successful paddle wheel warship design of Li Gao. In 1134,
14322-404: The gun was complemented by the ancestor to the cannon, what the Chinese referred to since the 13th century as the 'multiple bullets magazine erupter' ('bai zu lian zhu pao'), a tube of bronze or cast iron that was filled with about 100 lead balls. In 1132, at the siege of De'an , Song Chinese forces used fire lances against the rival Jurchen -led Jin dynasty . An early known depiction of a gun
14476-531: The inside walls of the lock with wood, so as not to abrade the boats. This was done, for instance, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal with the locks near the Paw Paw Tunnel . and also the Chenango Canal On large modern canals, especially very large ones such as ship canals , the gates and paddles are too large to be hand operated, and are operated by hydraulic or electrical equipment. On
14630-460: The installation of new lock gates. The new gates are made of English green oak and, taken together with the balance beam , weigh more than 5 tonnes. 53°51′21″N 1°50′16″W / 53.8558°N 1.8379°W / 53.8558; -1.8379 Canal lock#Staircase locks Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow
14784-414: The intermediate pounds have disappeared, and the upper gate of one lock is also the lower gate of the one above it. However, it is incorrect to use the terms staircase and flight interchangeably: because of the absence of intermediate pounds, operating a staircase is very different from operating a flight. It can be more useful to think of a staircase as a single lock with intermediate levels (the top gate
14938-409: The introduction of the windmill to China during the thirteenth century. These advances, along with the introduction of paper-printed money , helped revolutionize and sustain the economy of the Song dynasty . Song era antiquarians such as Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) and Shen Kuo dabbled in the nascent field of archaeology and epigraphy , inspecting ancient bronzewares and inscriptions to understand
15092-562: The late Song Chinese against the Mongols in 1277, and employed by the Yuan dynasty afterwards. The innovation of the detonated land mine was accredited to one Luo Qianxia in the campaign of defense against the Mongol invasion by Kublai Khan , Later Chinese texts revealed that the Chinese land mine employed either a rip cord or a motion booby trap of a pin releasing falling weights that rotated
15246-450: The lock caused the upstream gates to slam shut, breaking them also, and sending a cascade of water over the boat, sinking it. This suspended navigation on the canal for 48 hours until the lock gates could be replaced and the boat removed from the lock. To economise, especially where good stone would be prohibitively expensive or difficult to obtain, composite locks were made, i.e. they were constructed using rubble or inferior stone, dressing
15400-413: The lock on their level and therefore set the lock in their favour – saving about 5 to 10 minutes. However, this is not true for staircase locks, where it is quicker for boats to go through in convoy, and it also uses less water. The rise is the change in water-level in the lock. The two deepest locks on the English canal system are Bath deep lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal and Tuel Lane Lock on
15554-423: The mariner's magnetic needle compass, the earlier military treatise of the Wujing Zongyao in 1044 had also described a thermoremanence compass. This was a simple iron or steel needle that was heated, cooled, and placed in a bowl of water, producing the effect of weak magnetization, although its use was described only for navigation on land and not at sea. There were plenty of descriptions in Chinese literature of
15708-688: The new canal was low. This resulted in a sequential pair of locks, with gates pointing in opposite directions: one example was at Hall Green near Kidsgrove , where the southern terminus of the Macclesfield Canal joined the Hall Green Branch of the earlier Trent and Mersey Canal . The four gate stop lock near Kings Norton Junction, between the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal
15862-515: The past. Advances were also made in the field of forensics , in particular by Song Ci (1186–1249), author of the Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified that covered topics such as autopsies in murder cases and first aid for victims. Polymaths —that is, people knowledgeable across an encyclopaedic range of topics—such as Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Su Song (1020–1101) embodied the spirit of early empirical science and technology in
16016-457: The pole star and other celestial bodies. Shen Kuo also experimented with camera obscura , only a few decades after the first to do so, Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039). There were many other important figures in the Song era besides Shen Kuo and Su Song, many of whom contributed greatly to the technological innovations of the time period. Although the mechanically driven mile-marking device of the carriage-drawn odometer had been known in China since
16170-452: The reasoning of earlier Chinese astronomical theorists. Along with his colleague Wei Pu in the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen used cosmological hypotheses when describing the variations of planetary motion , including retrogradation . One of Shen's greatest achievements, aided by Wei Pu, was correcting the lunar error by diligently recording and plotting the moon's orbital path three times
16324-460: The reception of the driving belt, an endless band which responds to the movement of the machine by continuously rotating the pulley. An endless rope or cord may have been used in Du Shi 's device of waterwheels that powered bellows of the blast furnace in the 1st century (see Wind Power below). Printing technology in the form of movable type was invented by Bi Sheng ( 毕升 ; 990–1051) in
16478-408: The required level was reached, and then when the time came it was allowed to flow out. The water level could differ by 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 m) at each lock and in the Grand Canal the level was raised in this way by 138 feet (42 m). In medieval Europe a sort of pound lock was built in 1373 at Vreeswijk , Netherlands. This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin . Yet
16632-590: The revolving repository at Nanchan Temple of Suzhou featured a brake system of some sort ( sinologists are still uncertain how this operated, since the earliest known curve brake bands appear in the time of Leonardo da Vinci in Europe). A later Muslim traveler Shah Rukh (son of the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur ) came to Ming dynasty China in 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor , and described
16786-606: The rich enjoying the comforts of their luxurious private yachts . Besides Zhu Yu there were other prominent Chinese authors of maritime interests as well. In 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei, who wrote in Lingwai Daida about the Arab slave trade of Africans as far as Madagascar , stated this about Chinese seagoing ships, their sizes, durability at sea, and the lives of those on board: The ships which sail
16940-463: The river, and that irrigation was carried on (continuously) even when the water was high. If this could be done (successfully) in old times, why can it not be done now? I should like to enquire further about the matter from experts. Although the drydock had been known in Ptolemaic Egypt since the late 3rd century BCE (by a Phoenician ; not used again until Henry VII of England in 1495),
17094-412: The role of charcoal, hence many acres of forested land and prime timber in northern China were spared by the steel and iron industry with this switch of resources to coal . This massive increase in output of the iron and steel industry in China was the result of the Song dynasty's needs for military expansion, private commercial demands for metal products such as cooking utensils found in the market and
17248-536: The same purpose. The device used mechanical dead reckoning , rather than the magnetism of a compass , in order to navigate and find one's directional bearings. Yan Su ( 燕肃 ; c. 961–1040), the Divisional Director in the Ministry of Works , recreated a south-pointing chariot device in 1027, and his specifications for creating the device were provided in the Song Shi . This is of little surprise, as Yan
17402-576: The scientist and statesman Shen Kuo wrote of its use in China to repair boats during the 11th century. In his Dream Pool Essays (1088), Shen Kuo wrote: At the beginning of the dynasty (c. 965) the two Zhe provinces (now Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu ) presented (to the throne) two dragon ships each more than (60.00 m/200 ft) in length. The upper works included several decks with palatial cabins and saloons , containing thrones and couches all ready for imperial tours of inspection. After many years, their hulls decayed and needed repairs, but
17556-465: The ship must steer in such and such a direction'. But suddenly the wind may fall, and may not be strong enough to allow of the sighting of the mountain on the given day; in such a case, bearings may have to be changed. And the ship (on the other hand) may be carried far beyond (the landmark) and may lose its bearings. A gale may spring up, the ship may be blown hither and thither, it may meet with shoals or be driven upon hidden rocks, then it may be broken to
17710-406: The ships could be protected from the elements and avoid the damage caused by undue exposure. The Chinese of the Song dynasty were adept sailors who traveled to ports of call as far away as Fatimid Egypt. They were well equipped for their journeys abroad, in large seagoing vessels steered by stern-post rudders and guided by the directional compass . Even before Shen Kuo and Zhu Yu had described
17864-406: The ships were towed in above the beams. The (breach now being closed) the water was pumped out by wheels so that the ships rested quite in the air. When the repairs were complete, the water was let in again, so that the ships were afloat once more (and could leave the dock). Finally the beams and pillars were taken away, and the whole basin covered over with a great roof so as to form a hangar in which
18018-608: The sides of these pieces of wood also the oars are found; they are as big as masts, and are worked by 10 or 15 men (each), who row standing up. Although Ibn Battuta had mentioned the size of the sailing crew, he described the sizes of the vessels further, as well as the lavish merchant cabins on board: The vessels have four decks, upon which there are cabins and saloons for merchants. Several of these 'mysria' contain cupboards and other conveniences; they have doors which can be locked, and keys for their occupiers. (The merchants) take with them their wives and concubines. It often happens that
18172-427: The silt fertilization method, though many people disagreed with the plan. In spite of all opposition it was carried through, yet it had little success. When the torrents on Fan Shan were abundant, the gates were kept closed, and this caused damage (by flooding) of fields, tombs, and houses. When the torrents subsided in the late autumn the sluices were opened, and thus the fields were irrigated with silt-bearing water, but
18326-501: The sluice gates along the river and canal should be closed, but the Military Governor pointed out that the river was bordered on both sides by fields which supplied army grain, and if these were denied irrigation (water and silt) because of the closing of the sluice gates, it would lead to shortages in army grain supplies. From this I learnt that in the Tang period there were government fields and sluice gates on both sides of
18480-414: The smell and appearance of the mud. In addition, Zhu Yu wrote of watertight bulkhead compartments in the hulls of ships to prevent sinking if damaged, the for-and-aft lug , taut mat sails, and the practice of beating-to-windward. Confirming Zhu Yu's writing on Song dynasty ships with bulkhead hull compartments, in 1973 a 78-foot (24 m) long, 29-foot (8.8 m) wide Song trade ship from c. 1277
18634-649: The solid part of the lock cill. On the Oxford Canal it is called a babbie; on the Grand Union Canal it is referred to as the cill bumper. Some canal operation authorities, primarily in the United States and Canada, call the ledge a miter sill (mitre sill in Canada). Gates are the watertight doors which seal off the chamber from the upper and lower pounds. Each end of the chamber is equipped with
18788-541: The south-pointing carriage and the carriage with the li-recording drum (odometer). The two vehicles were made, and were first used that year at the great ceremony of the ancestral sacrifice. The text then went on to describe in full detail the intricate mechanical design for the two devices combined into one. (See the article on the south-pointing chariot ). Besides clockwork, hydraulic-powered armillary spheres, odometers, and mechanical compass vehicles, there were other impressive devices of mechanical engineering found during
18942-408: The southern sea and south of it are like houses. When their sails are spread they are like great clouds in the sky. Their rudders are several tens of feet long. A single ship carries several hundred men, and has in the stores a year's supply of grain. Pigs are fed and wine fermented on board. There is no account of dead or living, no going back to the mainland when once the people have set forth upon
19096-435: The space between them are placed very thick planks (the bulkheads) secured longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails, each three ells in length. When these walls have thus been built, the lower deck is fitted in, and the ship is launched before the upper works are finished. The pieces of wood, and those parts of the hull, near the water(-line) serve for the crew to wash and to accomplish their natural necessities. On
19250-407: The spilled grain. In 984 Qiao installed a pair of sluice-gates two hundred and fifty feet apart, the entire structure roofed over like a building. By siting two staunch gates so close to one another, Qiao had created a short stretch of canal, effectively a pound-lock, filled from the canal above by raising individual wooden baulks in the top gate and emptied into the canal below by lowering baulks in
19404-411: The staircase by moving sideways around each other; or at peak times, one can have all the chambers full simultaneously with boats travelling in the same direction. When variable conditions meant that a higher water level in the new canal could not be guaranteed, then the older company would also build a stop lock (under its own control, with gates pointing towards its own canal) which could be closed when
19558-413: The sump to a lower stream or drain, or (less wastefully) by pumping water back up to the canal. Particularly in the two-chamber type, there would be a need for a bypass culvert, to allow water to move along the interrupted pound and so supply locks further down the canal. In the case of the single-chamber type, this can be achieved by keeping the lock full and leaving the gates open while not in use. While
19712-404: The time on the operations and aspects of seaports, maritime merchant shipping, overseas trade, and the sailing ships themselves. In 1117, the author Zhu Yu wrote not only of the magnetic compass for navigation, but also a hundred-foot line with a hook that was cast over the deck of the ship, used to collect mud samples at the bottom of the sea in order for the crew to determine their whereabouts by
19866-493: The title for largest volume. In 2022 the IJmuiden sea lock serving the Port of Amsterdam became the world's largest lock by surface area. The lock is 500 m (1,600 ft) long, 70 m (230 ft) wide and has sliding lock gates creating a usable depth of 18 m (59 ft). The size of locks cannot be compared without considering the difference in water level that they are designed to operate under. For example,
20020-400: The top gate and raising ones in the lower. A turf-sided lock is an early form of canal lock design that uses earth banks to form the lock chamber, subsequently attracting grasses and other vegetation, instead of the now more familiar and widespread brick, stone, or concrete lock wall constructions. This early lock design was most often used on river navigations in the early 18th century before
20174-455: The total number of possible situations on a game board, another time the longest possible military campaign given the limits of human carriers who would bring their own food and food for other soldiers. Shen Kuo is also noted for improving the designs of the inflow clepsydra clock for a more efficient higher-order interpolation , the armillary sphere, the gnomon , and the astronomical sighting tube; increasing its width for better observation of
20328-425: The turntable trebuchet, the single-pole trebuchet and the squatting-tiger trebuchet . They were all called 'fire trebuchets' because they were used to project fire-weapons like the (fire-)ball, (fire-)falcon, and (fire-)lance. They were the ancestors of the cannon. The 14th century Huolongjing was also one of the first Chinese texts to carefully describe to the use of explosive land mines , which had been used by
20482-401: The two gates was rather more than 50 paces (250 ft) and the whole space was covered over with a great roof like a shed. The gates were 'hanging gates'; (when they were closed) the water accumulated like a tide until the required level was reached, and then when the time came it was allowed to flow out. He also built a horizontal bridge to protect their foundations. After this was done (to all
20636-404: The upstream lock to give them an extra heavy swell, which consisted of opening all the paddles on the lock gate, creating a surge that affected the whole pound below. On the Erie Canal, some loaded boats needed a swell to get out of the lock. Particularly lumber boats, being top heavy, would list to one side and get stuck in the lock, and needed a swell to get them out. Some lockkeepers would give
20790-430: The versatile Shen Kuo dabbled in subjects as diverse as mathematics , geography , geology , economics , engineering , medicine , art criticism , archaeology , military strategy , and diplomacy , among others. On a court mission to inspect a frontier region, Shen Kuo once made a raised-relief map of wood and glue-soaked sawdust to show the mountains, roads, rivers, and passes to other officials. He once computed
20944-400: The very roofs (of its deckhouses). A great ship with heavy cargo has nothing to fear from the high seas, but rather in shallow water it will come to grief. The later Muslim Moroccan Berber traveler Ibn Battuta (1304–1377) wrote in greater detail about Chinese sailing vessels than Zhou Qufei. He noted that in and around the seas of China, only the distinct Chinese junks were used to sail
21098-403: The waters. He noted that the largest type of Chinese ships boasted a total of twelve sailing masts , while the smaller ones had three. On Chinese ships and their crews, Ibn Battuta stated: The sails of these vessels are made of strips of bamboo , woven into the form of matting . The sailors never lower them (while sailing, but simply) change the direction of them according to whether the wind
21252-405: The windlass (or handle) out of one's hands, or if one was standing in the wrong place, could knock one into the canal, leading to injuries and drownings. On the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the lockkeepers were required to remove the windlasses from all lock paddles at night, to prevent unauthorized use. A swell was caused by opening suddenly the paddle valves in the lock gates, or when emptying
21406-529: The wooden figure of a man in the lower storey strikes a drum; at the completion of every ten li, the wooden figure in the upper storey strikes a bell. The carriage-pole ends in a phoenix-head, and the carriage is drawn by four horses. The escort was formerly of 18 men, but in the 4th year of the Yongxi reign period (987) the emperor Taizong increased it to 30. In the 5th year of the Tian-Sheng reign-period (1027)
21560-528: The work was impossible as long as they were afloat. So in the Xi-Ning reign period (1068 to 1077) a palace official Huang Huaixin suggested a plan. A large basin was excavated at the north end of the Jinming Lake capable of containing the dragon ships, and in it heavy crosswise beams were laid down upon a foundation of pillars. Then (a breach was made) so that the basin quickly filled with water, after which
21714-494: The workforce employed in these paper money factories was quite large, as it was recorded in 1175 that the factory at Hangzhou alone employed more than a thousand workers a day. Advances in military technology aided the Song dynasty in its defense against hostile neighbors to the north. The flamethrower found its origins in Byzantine -era Greece, employing Greek fire (a chemically complex, highly flammable petrol fluid) in
21868-481: Was a major feat of engineering at the time. When the locks and therefore the canal from Gargrave to Thackley was opened in 1774, a crowd of 30,000 people turned out to celebrate. The first boat to use the locks took just 28 minutes. The first trip was described in the Leeds Intelligencer . The smaller Bingley Three Rise Locks opened at the same time just a few hundred yards downstream. The staircase
22022-472: Was a wheeled vehicle that may, in some cases, have incorporated complex differential gears. (These are used now in nearly all modern automobiles to apply equal amounts of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds while turning.) The differential gears could have been used to keep a mechanically operated pointer aiming in a fixed direction, to the south, compensating for whatever turns the chariot made. Other arrangements of gears could also have been used for
22176-463: Was all that need be emptied when a boat passed through. This type of lock, called a pound lock was known in Imperial China and ancient Europe and was used by Greek engineers in the Canal of the Pharaohs under Ptolemy II (284 to 246 BC), when engineers solved the problem of overcoming the difference in height through canal locks . Pound locks were first used in medieval China during
22330-416: Was also a doubled set of locks. Five twinned locks allowed east- and west-bound boats to climb or descend the 60 feet (18 m) Niagara Escarpment , a considerable engineering feat in the nineteenth century. While Lockport today has two large steel locks, half of the old twin stair acts as an emergency spillway and can still be seen, with the original lock gates having been restored in early 2016. Loosely,
22484-464: Was based upon the total number of government tax receipts on iron from the various iron-producing prefectures in the empire. In the smelting process of using huge bellows driven by hydraulics (i.e. large waterwheels ), massive amounts of charcoal were used in the production process, leading to a wide range of deforestation in northern China. However, by the end of the 11th century the Chinese discovered that using bituminous coke could replace
22638-461: Was dredged from the water near the southern coast of China that contained 12 bulkhead compartment rooms in its hull. Maritime culture during the Song period was enhanced by these new technologies, along with the allowance of greater river and canal traffic. All around there was a bustling display of government run grain-tax transport ships, tribute vessels and barges, private shipping vessels, a multitude of busy fishers in small fishing boats, along with
22792-624: Was further advanced in Joseon era Korea, where Bi Sheng's baked clay characters were scrapped for metal type characters in 1234. The movable type of Bi Sheng was later improved upon by Wang Zhen (1290–1333), who invented wooden movable type c. 1298, and Hua Sui (1439–1513), who invented bronze movable type in China in 1490; yet the Koreans had metal movable type before Hua Sui, and even Wang Zhen had experimented with tin -metal movable type. Although movable type and woodblock printing would remain
22946-430: Was in widespread use for writing even by the 3rd century. The Song dynasty was the world's first government in history to issue paper-printed money—the banknote ( see Jiaozi and Huizi ). Toilet paper had been in general use in China since the 6th century, paper bags for preserving the flavor of tea leaves by the 7th century, and by the Song dynasty government officials who had done a great service were rewarded by
23100-434: Was made famous for his written description of Bi Sheng , the inventor of movable type printing. Shen was also interested in geology , as he formulated a theory of geomorphology and climate change over time after making observations of strange natural phenomena. Using contemporary knowledge of solar eclipses and lunar eclipses , he theorized that the sun and moon were spherical in shape, not flat, while expanding upon
23254-606: Was replaced in 1914 by a pair of guillotine lock gates which stopped the water flow regardless of which canal was higher. These gates have been permanently open since nationalisation. The best known example of a round lock is the Agde Round Lock on the Canal du Midi in France. This serves as a lock on the main line of the canal and allows access to the Hérault River . A second French round lock can be found in
23408-530: Was somewhat of a polymath like Shen Kuo and Su Song, improving the design of the clepsydra clock, writing on mathematical harmonics , theory about tides, etc. The Song Shi text records that it was the engineer Wu Deren who combined the south-pointing chariot and odometer in the year 1107: In the first year of the Da-Guan reign period (1107), the Chamberlain Wu Deren presented specifications of
23562-469: Was the "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel, while the other was a precursor to the modern Bessemer process that utilized partial decarbonization via repeated forging under a cold blast. The per capita iron output rose sixfold between 806 and 1078, and by 1078 Song China was producing 127,000,000 kg (125,000 long tons; 127,000 t) in weight of iron per year. The historian Donald B. Wagner points out that this estimate
23716-461: Was the best means of achieving success in the silt fertilization method. However, agricultural and transportation needs had the potential to conflict with one another. This is best represented in the Dongpo Zhilin of the governmental official and famous poet Su Shi (1037–1101), who wrote about two decades before Shen Kuo in 1060: Several years ago the government built sluice gates for
#631368