The Cellar Image of the Day

Thanks to Happy Monkey for pointing to this Flickr set and picking out three of the best shots of this.

A while back we had Germany's amazing water bridge, but I think, with this item, the Scots have topped it. Presenting the Falkirk Wheel. It's in Falkirk!

In this case, they had two canals coming at each other, one 24 meters higher than the other. Rather than bridge them, they wanted to connect them and allow boats to move from one to the other. But how to get the boats up 24 meters?

The Wheel answers that question by simultaneously lifting 300 tonnes of boat and water while simultaneously lowering 300 tonnes of boat and water on the other side, as it turns. The top boat is spun around to the bottom position and vice versa. Wow.

It's said that good engineering, working with nature instead of against it, comes up with naturally beautiful designs. We've seen that in the awesome Millau Viaduct and now here in this Wheel.

The lemon wedge on the bottom is an observatory... I want to observe it. Good work by those Scottish engineers!

(Doohan (RIP) applauds. Yes, yes he's not an actual Scottish engineer, but he did play one on TV.)

Damn, I saw a couple news articles and several websites describing this gizmo, when it opened, and not one of them had pictures any way near this good. Everyone was getting too close, showing details instead of pictures like these that show clearly how it works.
Good work HM, UT.

The way it is balanced, is so simple, it blew me away. Brilliant!

It is very cool. I like it a lot.

I have to wonder though, if a series of standard canal locks would be cheaper to build and easier to maintain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Damn - watched a programme on this months ago and thought at the time that pictures of it would make a good IoTD. Never got round to looking it up though

It was one of the UK Millenium Projects (another one was the infamous "wobbly bridge" across the Thames).

The Falkirk Wheel connects Glasgow and Edinburgh by canal, and although there was some discussion as to whether this was strictly necessary, the wheel has now become a tourist attraction in its own right. You can park your car and take a boat trip for the specific purpose of riding the wheel.

This is really great. I enjoy seeing proof that there are some very intelligent people on this planet. All hail the Scots... they did very well on their whisky venture also, IMO.

Best part about this to me is how they worked in harmony with nature instead of destroying it as usual.

even more cool, the play park next to it is sponsored by irn rbu, scotland's other national drink

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38213325@N00/215990532/

we're not just great at enginerring, we also make bright orange drinks full of caffeine, sheep intenstines full of fat and deep friend mars bars.

Quote:

The original source of many of these innovative ideas was in fact work already carried out an proven by Bennett Associates, in other fields. The lock gate seals, for example, used a proven solution from the design of air lock doors from the tunnelling industry. The seals at each end of the gondolas and on the canal gates of the aqueduct and the basin below it are totally watertight. With traditional lock gates some degree of leakage can be tolerated. The gates themselves form an extremely tight seal and are held shut by the pressure of the water that they are holding back and are pre-loaded by a pre-loading ram powered by an accumulator.

To release the seal and open the doors necessitates a powerful hydraulic ram. A situation complicated by the fact that the gondolas themselves carry no power pack with which to power such a ram. The solution to this particular conundrum was provided by Bennett Associates' experience in sub-sea pipeline systems. The seals are in fact released by a method known as 'hot stab', the necessary hydraulic pressure being provided from an external self-aligning hydraulic link that automatically connects each time a gondola docks with the aqueduct or canal basin.

Quote:

With the boats loaded and the gondola end gates closed, a computer-controlled water-pumping system equalizes the water levels in the two gondolas to establish near perfect weight balance before the Wheel turns. Fairfield Control Systems, Nottinghamshire, developed the software for the computer system that monitors and controls all Wheel functions. Using I/O from more than 600 points, the system meets all safety standards. For instance, it will not allow the Wheel to rotate until the safety locks on all the gates are confirmed operational.

Considering it's purpose, it doesn't sound all that complicated, to me.
Hell, cars can have 600 sensors these days.

I'm having trouble visualizing how the chamber between the doors, that they pump the water out of, is formed and sealed.

Is there an engineering reason for the pointy bits sticking off each chamber, other than looking cool?

Have to double click it twice, first brings up the message, second goes to youtube.

FYI - many Scots pronounce Falkirk by missing out the the third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters ...
Nevertheless, I must get to Falkirk someday ...

The pointy bits also cause the water to run off close to the river instead of dribbling off all over from height which would look... inelegant?

Wouldn't the pointy bits reduce the "schlup" effect as the bucket left the water?

(It's a technical term, you know)

yeah it is cool. cost a lot to build, but, running costs are minimal. like �10 a day . they charge each tourist �8 to �10 for a 10 min ride on it. 20 ppl every 20 mins. cuts out 5 hours work to just 5 mins. the doors open down like( |.| \./ _._ \./ |.| ) if that makes sense. all the water in between gets pumped out. the area underneath it is dry.

Welcome to the Cellar, grapyn.

Yes, your operation description is perfectly clear.
The picture shows the set up perfectly.
Thanks for answering my question, plus.

Undertoad, Scottie was supposed to be from Linlithgow - just a matter of minutes from the wheel.