CHAP. X. BIRMINGHAM CANAL. 423 



At the time that Mr. Telford was engaged upon the 

 tunnel at Harecastle, he was employed to improve and 

 widen the Birmingham Canal, another of Brindley's 

 works. Though the accommodation provided by it 

 had been sufficient for the traffic when originally con- 

 structed, the expansion of the trade of Birmingham and 

 the neighbourhood, accelerated by the formation of the 

 canal itself, had been such as completely to outgrow its 

 limited convenience and capacity, and its enlargement 

 and improvement now became absolutely necessary. 

 Brindley's Canal, for the sake of cheapness of construc- 

 tion money being much scarcer and more difficult to be 

 raised in the early days of canals was also winding and 

 crooked ; and it was considered desirable to shorten and 

 straighten it by cutting off the bends at different points. 

 At the point at which the canal entered Birmingham, it 

 had become " little better than a crooked ditch, with 

 scarcely the appearance of a towing-path, the horses 

 frequently sliding and staggering in the water, the 

 hauling-lines sweeping the gravel into the canal, and 

 the entanglement at the meeting of boats being inces- 

 sant ; whilst at the locks at each end of the short summit 

 at Smethwick crowds of boatmen were always quar- 

 relling, or offering premiums for a preference of passage ; 

 and the mine-owners, injured by the delay, were loud in 

 their just complaints." 



Mr. Telford proposed an effective measure of improve- 

 ment, which was taken in hand without loss of time, 

 and carried out, greatly to the advantage of the trade of 

 the district. The numerous bends in the canal were cut 

 off, the water-way was greatly widened, the summit at 

 Smethwick was cut down to the level on either side, 

 and a straight canal, forty feet wide, without a lock, thus 

 formed as far as Bilston and Wolverhamptori ; whilst the 

 length of the main line between Birmingham and Auther- 



Life of Telford,' p. 82, 83. 



