How a Canal Lock works

Video description of the workings of a Canal Lock. THE CANAL IN ACTION The Shubenacadie Canal, consisted of seven lakes, nine locks and two marine railways, on inclined planes. The inclined planes were used in place of locks to make raising boats faster and easier. They were powered by water turbines, and used a boat cradle to lift and support the boats up the inclined plane, while the flume house held the gears that made everything work. A boat arrived at Dartmouth cove and materials would be loaded onto a barge. The barge would be floated onto the cradle. The cradle would be hauled up the inclined plane and dropped into Sullivan’s Pond. Water that came from Sullivan’s Pond, through an overhead wooden flume, dropped water 45 feet down to the turbine chamber, spinning the turbine which rotated a shaft connected to gears. The gears controlled the power for a drum around which a cable was wound that connected to the boat cradle, thus supplying mechanical power to move the cradle up a