The history of the canals

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G.C.S.E  Original Writing

The history of the canals

Canals have been around for many years. The earliest that have been discover so far was in Iraq the archaeologists estimate that the remains are 6,000 years old. These waterways were fairly short. This was because locks had not been invented. The Chinese invented the first lock system almost a thousand years ago. This can still be seen in the modern ay. The first people to bring the canal system to England was the Romans. They build lengths of simple, single level canals.

Leonardo da virci designed and built the pound lock for the duke of Milan. The Llanguedoc Canal were the locks would be used was completed in 1681.This canal connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic ocean and saved ships a voyage of over 1,600km. This lock is still in use today on many canals.

The modern age of the canals started in the eighteenth century. England was expanding fast with the towns and cities growing bigger with most industries growing and growing. This is when they realised they needed a new form of transport, a cheap more reliable form of transport. The roads at that time were rough and packhorses were the only way of transporting heavy goods in the winter.

It was the Duke of Bridgewater that thought of the idea of using canals again. He approached the engineer James Brindles to design and build a canal. In 1761 the Bridgewater canal was completed and was a great success. Many companies followed the Dukes ideas by digging a network of canals all over Britain.

What are canals?

The dictionary definition a canal as a man made channel that holds water. Sometimes natural rivers can course problems; they can dry up, flood or be so shallow that the boats may not clear the bottom of the riverbed. So millions of pounds are spent to make rivers straighter, wider or deeper for boats. Sometimes it is cheaper and more convenient to dig an artificial waterway, called a canal. There are many different types of canals ranging from small irrigation canals, used by farmers to carry water to dry farmland, to big industrial canals. These canals allow big ships to transport goods; also they link ports up together. The most frequent used canals are called navigation canals. These are large enough, but narrow, to carry 72 foot boats or barges. They were mainly used for transporting cargo from the mines to the factories. Now they are used for pleasure.

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Unlike rivers canals do not flow. They are built on the level; this stops the water running away. When the land becomes uneven and not on the level, the canal is built in sections, which are called pounds. When two pounds meet there can be at different levels. One pound at a high level and one pound at a low level, so to get the two levels to meet a lock is used.

A lock is a large water box with gates at each end. The level of water in the lock is controlled by opening lags (sluices) which ...

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