8/13/2006: The Falkirk Wheel

[Undertoad]

Thanks to Happy Monkey for pointing to this Flickr set and picking out three of the best shots of this.

A while back we had Germany's amazing water bridge, but I think, with this item, the Scots have topped it. Presenting the Falkirk Wheel. It's in Falkirk!

In this case, they had two canals coming at each other, one 24 meters higher than the other. Rather than bridge them, they wanted to connect them and allow boats to move from one to the other. But how to get the boats up 24 meters?



The Wheel answers that question by simultaneously lifting 300 tonnes of boat and water while simultaneously lowering 300 tonnes of boat and water on the other side, as it turns. The top boat is spun around to the bottom position and vice versa. Wow.



It's said that good engineering, working with nature instead of against it, comes up with naturally beautiful designs. We've seen that in the awesome Millau Viaduct and now here in this Wheel.

The lemon wedge on the bottom is an observatory... I want to observe it. Good work by those Scottish engineers!



(Doohan (RIP) applauds. Yes, yes he's not an actual Scottish engineer, but he did play one on TV.)