CANA L. 697 
I propofe what I call a fall'e rung, beam, or half 
balk, of timber, well bolted and joined to the up¬ 
right timbers of each of the outfide.s of the frame or 
cradle, but at fuch diftance from the laid outfide 
frames as will admit the wheels above defcribed within the 
faid falfe rung ; then each w heel will have its own axis of 
iron, about three inches diameter, and only eighteen inches 
long. I recommend that the axles be fall in the w heels, and 
turn round with them, which I apprehend will caufe the 
machine to move more Heady. Fobrthly,.I (hall pext de- 
fcribe the principal lever or regulating wheel, which I 
propofe to be twenty feet diameter, with fnort levers or 
hand-fpokes, fixed upon each fide of the periphery or fel¬ 
lies of laid wheel, three feet long, which will be equal to 
a lever of thirteen feet. The faid wheel will hang verti¬ 
cally, bejng well fixed on the middle or centre of a beam 
about thirty feet long, and about twenty incites diameter, 
which muff at each end, with its gudgeons, reft upon two 
flrong frames of wood,. elevated by their legs to a proper 
/ height on each fide of the upper canal, about thirty feet on 
the canal. And, if it be thought too long betwixt the'two 
extremities or fulcrums, other two fulcrums may be railed 
on each fide of the vertical u:heel; that part of the beam 
or axis moving upon thefe fulcrums being ribbed with (feel 
ribs, and moving upon blades, after the manner of an old- 
fafhtoned windmill. The life of this beam or axis is for 
two pair of ropes to wind or coil upon, faftened to the car¬ 
riage or cradle of each boat, t-he one pair of ropes on the 
upper fide of the axis, and the other pair on the 
under fide ; and, to keep the.ropes parallel, one of the 
ropes of each pair mu ft be fo fixed by a ferew, or fonte 
other device, *is that it can be^eaffty lengthened or fhert- 
ened. In my models I have tried with one rope, but could 
not make it anfwer To well as two ; 1 alfo think two ftronger 
than one, and lafer to trull to; the ropes, being made of 
the bell hemp, need not be above an inch diameter. The 
ufe of the lever wheel is to regulate, by either aflifting and 
quickening the motion b-y the (hurt levers or hpnd-fpokes ; 
and, for retarding, a brake may be fix'ed upon the face or 
fide of the (aid wheel, after the manner of a windmill- 
brake. Fifthly, the third inclined plane, the ufe of which 
is to aftift the veftels going in and out of the upper canal; 
for, whatever the elevation propoled to be ;aifed at 
one operation be, four or live feet will be loft in deli¬ 
vering the veftel or boat into the upper canal ; for, 
the afeending veftc-1,' having arrived at the top of its 
inclined lane, is landed on to a fiat, but rather inclined to¬ 
wards the upper canal, and, ‘o get fafely launched into the 
upper canal, it niuft delcend down an inclined plane into 
the water at the upper canal; but, to prevent it defeendmg 
too prec palely, a Tingle rope is fixed or hung to the hind 
part of the cradle, the other end of faid rope being coiled 
and faftened on an axis, on which axis or beam is fixed 
another ieve.r wheel, but need not be fo bigas the other 
already defcribed • fromwhich axis alfo goes another cOpe, 
or couple of ropes, joined to a carriage or veil'd with four 
wheels, at (he bottom of the third inclined plane; and, by 
its afeent up faid third inclined plane, it luccours or lets 
down the commercial boat into the upper c.mal ; and, by 
its delcent, it aftifts in getting a commercial veftel cut of 
the upper canal on to the head of its inclined plane ; at the 
fame 1 me it is luppofed that a commercial boat is coming 
out ot the lower canal ; in which lower canal there is no 
difficulty, for, the carriage or cradle being made fpecifi- 
cally heavier than v'a er; the boat when let loofe will na¬ 
turally float out of the carriage, either in the lower canal 
or upper, h ng made deeper of water at thole places fdr 
that pm 1 ' e. "it would-be well to have a fpare veftel or 
two ready loaded w ith water, or any other materials, in cafe 
of an alternate courfe not being kept up bv the commercial 
boa* . Exit a nore fun,pie and cheap method (but not fo 
expeditious) ma> be praGlued, as follows ; fuppofe only 
one inclined plane, and two lever wheels, as before dc- 
Icribed, only the Sea c.or axis need-not be above twelve 
feet long'and about fifteen incites diameter, and the in- 
Vol. III. No..156. 
dined plane twelve times the length of the elevation, 
which will l educe the burden to two tons or forty hundred 
weight; and the lever wheels and hand-fpokes, being 
above eighteen times the diameter of the axis, reduce the 
forty hundred to little more than two hundred, except the 
friction, which will not amount to one tenth more upon a 
fingle machine, if properly executed. Suppofe the elevation 
to be overcome be twenty.four feet, then the inclined plane, 
would be two hundred and eighty-eight feet, which would 
take about feventy-two revolutions of the great wheel, 
which 1 apprehend the weight or power of three men 
would work up in about half an hour.” 
The fpjrit of improvement Hill going on, Meflfrs. Row¬ 
land and Pickering, of Ruabon, in Denbighlhire, have lug- 
gefted a method of conftrufifing navigable canals without 
the neceffity of either locks or inclined planes, whereby the 
expence and'inconveniences of them both are at once re¬ 
moved. This invention is protected by a patent, dated 
March 18, 1794, and is thus explained by the patentees : 
“ We do hereby declare, that our method is performed in 
the manner following: Firft, in order to erefit our machi¬ 
nery, for the purpole of railing a commercial boat from a 
lower canal to an upper one, or lowering the fame from an 
upper canal, a fpaceof land, or a horizontal plane, be¬ 
twixt the upper and the lower canal, will be necellary. 
The length and breadth of fuch fpaceof land to be accord¬ 
ing to theTize of the machinery; and the (ize of the raa- 
• chinery to be in proportion to the dimenlionsof a commer¬ 
cial boat and lading, of any refpefifive canal, and which five 
machinery may be intended to convey. The difference of 
the height of the two canals may be from one foot to an 
hundred,as the machinery in queftioti may be built to (erve 
any intermediate height, or greater if necelfisfy. In the 
fpaceof land above-mentioned mull be made a well, whole 
depth muft be as much as the perpendicular height ol the 
upper canal from the lower, with a farther allowance for 
the depth of a diving cheft, intended to be put therein. 
The width of the well, if for boats of twenty -five to twenty- 
eight tons burden, may be ten feet, and length from forty- 
five to forty-eight feet, and fo in proportion to any other 
fized boats. The top of the well to be rather below the 
plane of the bottom of the lower canal; the well to be, filled 
with water, and to contain a diving cheft, which is in¬ 
tended to be funk or railed in the well at pleafure. The 
diving cheft may be made in manner and form of a boat, 
but clofed at top, To exaflly, that no water (hall be ad¬ 
mitted, though hunk to the bottom of tlye well. Its di- 
m'enfions, if for boats of twenty-eight tons burthen, muff 
contain 1800 cubic feet vacuity, which would require a 
preffure of fifty tons weight, in order to i'nimerge it in 
water. The weight for the aforementioned purpole, and to 
balance it exactly, may be conlidered; •firft, pillars' upon 
the diving cheft, of a length equal to the height of the 
upper canal from the top of the cheft, when juft im- 
merged in the water of the well, and which may be made 
of iron or wood,- at the dilcretion of the builder; fix or» 
eight will generally be fufficient. The pillars,,it made ot 
iron, and of fufficient ftrengtb, and twenty-one feet long, 
(which will be a length rnoft,ordinarily ufefirl)will be about 
fix tons weight ; but tlie length of the pillars will intirely 
depend upon the height of the upper canal from the lower 
one. Upon the top of the pillars muft be fixed a cradle, 
to be made in the lhapeof a'boat, and of a (ize juft fo much 
larger as will admit of a commercial boat 1 within it ; the 
cradle to have a door or Hide at each end, to be opened or 
Unit occafionally. The doors or Hides' to be juft fo much 
wider than a commercial boat, as will give room fora boat 
to float in and our of the cradle freely. The doors or Hides 
of the cradle to be fitted io exactly that, w hen leathered 
in the joints, and Ihut or put down, no watei maybe left. 
'The weight of the cradle will be .about fix ton-, ami the. 
water that ; t niuft contain, in order niat a commercial boat 
may float imahd out, poll be about thirty-eight tons; the 
whole of the weight will be about.fifiy tons. The diving 
cheft thus balanced, the commercial veftel coming Into-or 
c S P _ out 
