358 TIIK BRIDGEWATKR CANAL PART V. 



At every point Brindley's originality and skill were at 

 work. He invented the cranes for the purpose of more 

 readily loading the boats with the boxes filled with the 

 Duke's " black diamonds/' He also contrived and laid 

 down within the mines a system of underground rail- 

 ways, all leading from the face of the coal (where the 

 miners were at work) to the wells which he had made 

 at different points in the tunnels, through which the 

 coals were shot into the boats waiting below to re- 

 ceive them. At Manchester, where they were unloaded 

 for sale, the contrivances which he employed were 

 equally ingenious. It was at first intended that the 

 canal should terminate at the foot of Castle Hill, up 

 which the coals were dragged by their purchasers from 

 the boats in wheelbarrows or carts. But the toil of 

 dragging the loads up the hill was found very great ; 

 and, to remedy the inconvenience, Brindley contrived to 

 extend the canal for some way into the hill, opening 

 a shaft from the surface of the ground down to the level 

 of the water. The barges having made their way to the 

 foot of this shaft, the boxes of coal were hoisted to the 

 surface by a crane, worked by a box waterwheel of 30 

 feet diameter and 4 feet 4 inches wide, driven by the 

 waterfall of the river Medlock. In this contrivance 

 Brindley was only adopting a modification of the losing 

 and gaining bucket, moved on a vertical pillar, which 

 he had before successfully employed in drawing water 

 out of coal-mines. By these means the coals were rapidly 

 raised to the higher ground, where they were sold and 

 distributed, greatly to the convenience of those who came 

 to purchase them. 



Brindley's practical ability was equally displayed in 

 planning and building a viaduct and in fitting up a crane 

 in carrying out an embankment or in contriving a 

 coal-barge. The range and fertility of his constructive 

 genius were extraordinary. For the Duke, he invent < -d 

 water- weights at Eough Close, riddles to wash coal for 



