Whatever floats your boat

Published 2007-02-16    Printer-friendly version

Tired of the same boring old canal locks? Want something that's a bit more like a slo-mo carnival ride? Take a turn on the Falkirk Wheel.

I have no idea how cost-effective it is to build a device like this is for lifting boats, as compared to a traditional lock, but it's cheap to operate. It takes about the same electrical energy to go through one half rotation as is needed to boil eight kettles of water.

And it's a stunning bit of engineering.

And for those of us with short attention spans, the time lapse version:

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