LIFT FOR CANALS. 337 



gent lift is only twelve feet, and by way of experiment : for the Machinery 

 Committee, in the first instance, did not choose to rnn too ^'JJJUJSng 

 great risk j but the machines may be adapted to raise twenty, boats upon 

 thirty, or any number of feet by greater length of chains, and J^^jJ^ 

 adequate building to suit the levels, at a much less proportionate pence of water 

 expence than in shorter lifts. To what extent this may be as bv lock8 ' 

 carried, prudence and experience must dictate ; and, therefore, 

 whether the expence of the perpendicular lifts, or the old sys- 

 tem of lockage, with the expences of procuring water, be 

 greater, it would be improper for me to give an opinion. 



In the course of conversation, many circumstances, highly 

 favourable to his plan, were mentioned by the Inventor, which 

 appeared to me to have great weight. By the old plan, each 

 of the locks must have the same fall, and in each range they 

 must be built near to each other, so as to be under the eye of 

 the lock keeper j of course, instead of adapting them to the 

 nature of the country, a great expence must unavoidably take 

 place in the forming the land to the lock. This will not be 

 the case with the lifts j being quite distinct from each other, 

 it will not signify whether they be close, or one or six miles 

 asunder, nor whether they lift 12, 20, or 30 feet. They 

 may be accommodated to the nature of the country through 

 .which the canal passes, will require much less land, and may 

 be placed, probably, in situations where the land is of least 

 value : the canal, for the same reason, may vary its course ac- 

 cording to circumstances, which cannot be the case in the old f 

 system j and when we consider the great price of land in some 

 situations more than others, the saving to a Canal Company, 

 in this respect, must be very great. 



As soon as one life is finished in a canal, it may be used, and 

 a great saving made in water carriage to the remaining works, 

 and perhaps the tonnage constantly increasing, which is not the 

 case in the lock system/ which cannot be used to much effect 

 till the steam engines are completed, and the water brought to 

 the highest level. And if any considerations should be thought 

 to stand against their general adoption in all circumstances, 

 still the lifts would be of value j wherever water was scarce, 

 and the lock system might be followed in situations where it was 

 in plenty. 



At the time I am writing, I have before my eyes, 150 yards 



from 



