The Surprising Efficiency of Canal Locks

People use boats for all kinds of reasons, and in the same way, there are all kinds, shapes, sizes, and ages of locks used for waterway navigation across the world. Freight is big business. “Shipping” got its name for a reason, and we still use ships to move a lot of our stuff. The video provides a basic summary of how locks work, including an explanation of the water saving basins used on the new locks at the Panama Canal.
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Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse
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[@Christian-cz9bu]

As a kid living on a sailboat in the 70's, I got to travel a handful of times through the Panama canal. Let me tell ya, when you're on a 60 foot wooden sailboat and you're in the lock and dwarfed by a huge freighter and the valves open and create large boils of incoming water, it's very unnerving. Although getting to travel back through the jungle on the train a few times was really cool.

[@asherjackson4504]

Christian that sounds terrifying! I’ve always had a strange phobia of plumbing and machinery submerged beneath water, I’m not sure if that’s an actual phobia. But this would certainly be an example.

[@ArtyMars]

woahhh that's nuts

[@able_archer01]

@@asherjackson4504 Closest thing I could find is submechanophobia, the fear of fully or partially submerged man-made objects in water.

[@nickajk1]

@@able_archer01 that's the phobia of being in a submarine

[@nickajk1]

@@able_archer01 lol

[@paulsmyers203]

I appreciate that you turn the toy boat to drive forward through the lock instead of just shoving it along :D

[@StarkRG]

Realism!

[@BillBrasky7718]

Funny!!!

[@kevinoconnor6577]

Paul Smyers professionals have standards

[@rhuttrho88]

Nah, he should of built a tiny pumping station! Complete with trained fleas to run the canal!!🤨

[@e1123581321345589144]

he doesn't want to block his canal by boat going sideways.

[@RammusTheArmordillo]

The only locks the lockpicking lawyer can't pick

[@battlesheep2552]

You underestimate his power

[@Llortnerof]

"3 is binding, little click on 4..."

[@igorino1767]

3 is binding, little leak out of 4

[@Silvie59]

@@battlesheep2552 lockpicking intensifies

[@relaxrhythms89]

He'd probably still pick it lmao

[@octoberspirit]

I grew up in an area that used to be part of the Ohio & Erie Canal, and you can still see some of the old locks. The gates and water are gone, but the side structures are still there, so you can clearly see the elevation change between sections. Walking along the wall, you very quickly go from being level-ish with the bottom of the lock to being at a definite no-jumping distance. It's a cool bit of history to experience.

[@leehuff2330]

It's really impressive how they built the old canals, especially since it was nearly all done by hand. I grew up near the old Sandy and Beaver myself.

[@Felixkeeg]

LockPickingLawyer: "Click out of 3, 2 is binding.... aaaand we've drained the entire reservoir"

[@juanyeap]

Felixkeeg He prolly did it blindfolded with a plastic straw while the National Guard was shooting at him.

[@dakotadirden9834]

Felixkeeg no lol

[@Sonofavenger]

Funnily enough I was watching LPL just earlier today. This made me chuckle.

[@manuelnagore4409]

Gotta love niche youtubers

[@FusionDeveloper]

I watch his videos too. Thanks for the joke. It was very unexpected and made me laugh.

[@filipe5153]

I feel silly that I've never thought about the loss of water in these systems

[@joinedupjon]

Yeah, did you see the Toddbrook reservoir in england getting overtopped last year? that's a canal feeder reservoir - big part of canal projects.

[@dravorek]

I don't know why, but I always just assumed they'd pump in water to raise the lock. I never thought about how much energy that would waste.

[@tiespauelsen7983]

I just assumed that like in rivers its okay that water goes downstream when using these locks

[@nicholaslau3194]

@@dravorek I thought that way too. I thought whatever energy you put in to pump water, you eventually get most of it back by letting water level drop.

[@rodchallis8031]

I wouldn't feel silly. My experience with locks is the St. Lawrence Seaway, Welland Ontario is not far from me and I've seen the big Lake Freighters move through them. Water loss isn't an issue on the Great Lakes locks, as the water lost is small compared to what's in the lakes. As for the Panama Canal, yes, in the past I wondered about water loss, but never gave it much thought, assuming that rains there were enough to supply the lake. I had no idea water loss was an issue.

[@professorsogol5824]

In view of the Ever Given currently aground bow and stern in the Suez Canal, this video may be somewhat apropos. However, please remember there are no locks in the Suez Canal; it is the longest lock-free canal in the world.

[@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041]

One of the reasons the same guy's company that was successful with the Suez canal caused one of the biggest financial scandals in Belle Epoque France is that they thought they could build a lock-free canal in Panama. When the Americans eventually took over a half built disaster plagued with tropical disease and corruption, they looked to their own Erie Canal and knew within a short period of time that locks would be needed - so they built them.

[@cameronmaunsell5536]

@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 Umm ... the French project (eventually) realized that locks would be required and hired Gustave Eiffel to design them.. unfortunately getting him caught up in the financing scandal (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Eiffel#The_Panama_Scandal)

[@StarkRG]

Watching youtubers who live on narrowboats on the British canal system has really helped me appreciate the engineering of locks and lock staircases. Not to mention boat lifts and boat elevators and the fact that an elevator basin containing a boat weighs the same as an elevator basin NOT containing a boat, regardless of the size of a boat or how much stuff it has in it (assuming it's still afloat).

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

Hope everyone is surviving their lockdown. Be kind to each other, check in with your loved ones, and hopefully this will all be over soon.

[@Ijjergom]

A question. Would using pumps and pond with same volume as the lock make it so that no water is theoriticaly used?

[@FlatEarthMath]

@@Ijjergom I think you're exactly right. :-) The point that Grady was making here is that with the side ponds, NO energy is needed to move the water. Pumps are extremely expensive (and time consuming) in terms of the volumes in locks.

[@RealCadde]

Don't check in with your granny though... Chances are you are carrying the infection and you don't even know it. In fact, a non insignificant portion of those infected don't ever show any symptoms. Yet can still infect someone that will die from it.

[@crazEgamer201]

This lockdown stopped my planned Easter holiday camping trip on the Irish canals with a Kayak. Appreciate this video on the locks, they're a greatly underappreciated part of a greatly underappreciated system in our modern world.

[@davidbergmann8948]

Things will never go back to normal. This is the new normal. 🍄🍄

[@rasmis]

This should be a poster: “Water always drains to the lower canal. This is because of gravity. Hopefully that's obvious.”

[@ZoeSoutter]

WhAtS gRaViTy?¿?¿?¿?¿

[@brent13420]

I'd buy it

[@tylercoletti6263]

vsause: or is it? *music plays*

[@gmc9753]

But, but, but the Earth is flat and there's no such thing as gravity!

[@bernie9728]

@@gmc9753 That's one of the funniest things about the "flat earth movement", they know that water seeks it's own level, but can't wrap their heads around gravity. Since it's gravity that makes water seek it's own level that's where the humor comes from.

[@hankiedoodle4828]

I would love to see a video (or maybe even a series) that goes into detail about the various systems used by the Dutch to reclaim land from the sea, I think that would be super interesting, any chance of that happening?

[@js267]

@Practical Engineering - plus you could probably write off some of your travel expenses!

[@mrmysterius]

I'm from Hannover Germany, and I was biking to that lock in my childhood when I was like 5 or 6 maybe, but I never knew until now that this method of saving water existed neither that that particular lock had 10 of those basins. Also, I was kinda surprised that this lock is in the Video. Great Video I love it

[@Robvdh87]

Adding to this, at least here in the Netherlands the locks also have big electric pumps to pump water from the low side to the highside, outside the lock. So to maintain the waterlevel on that side and create a buffervolume of water to use later in the lock. It's not the most economical way but it's important to keep the waterlevel between a string of locks to a certain level due to the draft of the ships passing through.

[@Victor-my1hi]

In Russia they don't need pumps bc they use rails to move the boats up and down.

[@sebastaroth]

And before electric pumps, there were wind-powered windmills. :-)

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

I assume this is because those locks are going to below sea level, so the water would need to be pumped _up_ to the sea later anyway. So you probably want to avoid dumping a lot of water down to the lower levels; not so much to conserve water from above.

[@millomweb]

@@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug Absolutely no need to go lower than sea level - so no ! It's purely to conserve water above.

[@millomweb]

Uk doesn't do it on a lock by lock basis but from bottom to top. Then any intermediate levels can be filled from above - making the plumbing simpler.

[@zeebeezoey]

Here's a couple of things I learned about locks as a kid: 1. Have patience. The lock gates will not open until the water on both sides is level due to the pressure differential 2. For the love of god, make sure you close the sluice gates. If you leave them open you will drain the entire canal.

[@TS-jm7jm]

how long would it take to drain the entire canal?

[@colinmoore7460]

@@TS-jm7jm depends on the canal, but real easy to drain a ten mile stretch if that's the distance between locks! I live in Dudley, near Birmingham UK, and we have a lot of canals (also called "the cut" locally).

[@ARCANEmateCLAN]

@@colinmoore7460 I live by the Kennet canal in Berkshire, which connects Reading to Bath. Yes, people draining the canal by leaving the locks open has occurred on more than one occasion. I've seen the canals in Birmingham by Five Ways, very beautiful as you reach the city centre (although a tidy up is in order).

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@colinmoore7460 1)thanks for the reply, 2) oof you live near Birmingham,... my sympathies man.

[@simonpackham5780]

Tristan smith See that piece of string?

[@MrIdleknight]

Have been watching your videos for a while but as a narrowboat owner, I found this especially interesting. I love going through locks and seeing basic engineering doing amazing things.

[@SamCyanide]

I always loved your fluid dynamics videos. I've always been interested in fluids and their interactions with the world around them and themselves since I was a kid and I marveled at the way water ebbs and flows the shower walls connecting and disconnecting forming streams and remaining independent drops

[@Kabodanki]

the lockpickinglawyer wants to know more about these locks

[@IdioticPlatypus]

Perfect, I already bought the bagels.

[@ferko28]

The loss of water is an inexcusable security flaw.

[@benhardwiesner6963]

He never tried breaking the ultra secure panama waterlocks yet...

[@joshuacheung6518]

Just tell him it's unpickable

[@martinb.770]

@@benhardwiesner6963 Print "Master Lock" on it, give him a bucket and 2 minutes.

[@0ptera]

"There's other ways to move boats up" Yeah, boat lifts are amazing to watch, especially the crazy Falkirk Wheel.

[@azz2]

I was offended this wasn't mentioned in the vid.

[@CalvinsWorldNews]

It really is super impressive, my parents drove us to see it when I was a teenager, I was expecting it to be a bit dull and just an excuse for them to go for a drive/lunch. But being there, it's almost like watching a fake mocked-up thing at a scifi theme park, while you wait for a ride. Except it's real and it's only every now and again, just for a second or two, you spot a logo like Maersk logo or the like and get brought back to the very real and industrial nature of what you're actually watching.

[@Genius_at_Work]

@@CalvinsWorldNews Isn't the Falkirk Wheel used only by Recreational Boats and way to small for any commercial Use?

[@CalvinsWorldNews]

Der Bleifuss maybe nowadays or predominantly. You could be right. I visited many years ago and there was a barge or two with equipment and things going past

[@kadmow]

@@azz2 : next time maybe??

[@therocpd]

There is this amazing ferris wheel type contraption in Scotland where you can load a boat at either top or bottom, or even both ends, and then the wheel moves them to the other height. It's called the Falkirk Wheel, check it out :)

[@codysimmons1398]

I had to scour through probably a dozen videos and a few online articles trying to find someone to explain exactly where the upstream water was coming from! You were the first I found to flat out say “water is always lost when going from the upper channel to the lower.” THANK YOU. I kept rattling my brain trying to understand how it could go uphill using the same amount of water, but thanks to you I now know it can’t, but can be reduced. All these videos would show the ship moving into one or two channels but never explained where/how the water from the lakes upstream gets replenished, or would never explain how or if the same water gets reused each time.

[@igelkott255]

I grew up near the Erie Canal. I used to love to go down to the locks and watch the boats go through. Thanks for explaining the side ponds The visuals were excellent!

[@wideright7567]

igelkott255 please tell me the 15 Miles on the Erie Canal song is not just a Buffalo thing

[@igelkott255]

@@wideright7567 Yeah I remember hearing that when I was a kid. I'm sure it's a song heard all along the canal.

[@AbusedAlarmClock]

I lived in Lockport for a few years when I was in elementary school. I remember going down to the Locks and the Canal during a field day trip. Was always fun to see the occasional boat go through

[@DanielleWhite]

One of my favorite canal stories is of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. I grew up in the area of Scranton so it was local. The canal ran 108 miles from New York State to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and had 108 locks. The story told was that an early plan was to run the canal to Carbondale, where the mines were producing the anthracite coal the canal was to transport, but that was scrapped in favor of a gravity railroad (used animals like mules or fixed-position steam engines to pull rail cars up grades) due to the Moosic Mountains standing between the two points, which, with the shallow lock technology of the day, would have more than doubled the number of locks on the canal.

[@Wyattporter]

God, the way he said “isthmus” at 2:38. Flawless

[@medicentio]

As a Panamanian, I can say you've explained my Canal very well. Good job sir!

[@gteran]

It’s still ours young man

[@medicentio]

@@gteran not since 2000, thanks to former perz Carter.

[@daniel_bohrer]

Oh wow, Hanover is basically just around the corner from me, and I've never heard of this amazing lock! For everyone who's interested, it is Sparschleuse Anderten on the Mittelland canal.

[@matthewhall5571]

Daniel Bohrer only 600 meters from the very final U-Bahn station it appears. So you can even visit it using the Hanover transit system.

[@HcBlain]

Its acutally called Hindenburgschleuse and it's kind of unimpressiv. I lived there and as it has beeing said in the video: you cannot see anything other than the canal and some buildings. If you cannot get a guided tour (which are very rare) it's not worth a planned visit

[@rschroev]

A (much!) more impressive structure on the Mitteland canal is IMO the Magdeburg Water Bridge which enables ships to travel from the Mitteland canal *over* the river Elbe directly to the Elbe-Havel Canal and still enables ships on the Elbe to travel *under* the bridge. There's a nice picture at www.ratswaage.de/files/gfx/content/6_Magdeburg/Magdeburg_1600-2015_Copyright_Andreas_Lander_kl.jpg, many more can be found online. English Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_Water_Bridge

[@wahngott4711]

I drove by this lock almost daily for a past job and still do quite often, always thought it looked interesting but never knew it was that interesting ^^

[@fernandojosegp]

You have so many great videos on water infrastructure. I had a class on this subject a few years ago, would have been great to watch these videos back then to better understand some topics. Keep up the great work!

[@Impatient_Ape]

Another really great video! I wish I had access to these 10 years ago when I was teaching physics to mechanical engineers.

[@martijnjongepoerink3459]

Having passed the Caledonian Canal. LOCKS Are Awesome!!!! Nearly best trip ever!!! WOW!!!

[@larsmees4952]

I love how you explain complex things in an easy way!

[@boonjabby]

Always a solid intro and no click bait. Love your videos Grady 👍

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

Thank you and all KZbin content creators for all you are doing during this very trying time! Take care!

[@Werrf1]

When I was but a wee sprogling, my family owned a small, homemade wooden cabin cruiser that we kept on the River Wey, in the south-east of England. It's a natural river that's been canalised to make it more navigable, which involved deepening and straightening a few stretches, plus the addition of a number of locks. The locks are fantastic, muscle-powered systems, with sluices at each end that you operate with a big metal handle, and heavy wooden gates with long lever arms that are so well balanced that a child can push them open on their own (which I regularly did). The locks were always the highlight of our trips along the river!

[@jlhutto]

Grady, this video is Erie-ly conveniently timed lol as I was just looking up ULA's Rocketship yesterday and how they use a ship from north Alabama to the Cape or California. And I learned how they use the "Tenn-Tom" canal which knocks out half the journey from Decatur to the gulf of Mexico

[@sd4dfg2]

Everything is richer and more deep than I expected.

[@marksadler4457]

Another thank you. I used this video for my logic applications moment in class . I really appreciate your work :) and so do my students.

[@boysrus61]

Thank you for your time in explaining this. Planning a trip to the Panama Canal and your video was suggested as a "must see" before going.

[@RealCadde]

You should have briefly mentioned why water transport is so slow. While floating on water is efficient, at high enough speeds it quickly isn't. Ships are like airships. Except they (practically) don't need to do anything to stay afloat. Unlike airships however, they are in contact with the water's surface at all times. They have almost the same cross sectional area of air to push through as an airship does, but weigh millions times more so the air resistance is less severe for a boat. It's the contact area with the water that's the source of most resistance. Just like air, water's resistance increases with velocity² (not exactly but close enough) so double the speed and quadruple the force required to maintain that speed. Or in other words, quadruple the horsepower and fuel consumption. This is why most freight ships tootle along at around 24 knots (44 km/h, 27 mph) as it's the best tradeoff between "getting there sometime this year" and "not spending a fortune on fuel". Or in short, ships are slow because water is denser than air and thus they encounter the same resistance a car going 60 miles per hour does at their normal speed.

[@hedgehog3180]

This is also why a lot of people are interested in trying to bring back sailing ship. The main expense for freight right now is fuel and that's why you get ships going so slowly, if the ships were powered by wind you obviously wouldn't have that expense and a sailing ship can easily reach these speeds. Sailing ships were mostly abandoned not because they're slow but because they required large crews but with modern technology it might be possible to make almost fully autonomous sailing ships. This would obviously have huge benefits to the environment, cargo ships are already one of the most environmentally friendly ways to transport goods and this would completely eliminate emissions from them. And it's an area with a lot of promise because it'd make economical sense for shipping companies to adopt modernized wind power. The main challenges right now is in trying to reduce the roll of sailing ships since these days we stack containers up extremely high so therefor we can't have the ship roll much.

[@techshadow9000]

"tootle along" xD

[@KuraIthys]

@@hedgehog3180 I've been curious if it would be viable to have solar-powered ships. Obviously this is limited by the ratio of solar panels to the size of the ship, which means the most viable platform for such a design would be something with the largest possible deck area for the least amount of energy required to move the ship. (the first thing that comes to mind with these requirements is a catamaran) Compared to a conventional sailing ship, the advantages are that you can move in any direction as long as there's sunlight, which there is fairly reliably at most latitudes for a decent part of a day. (if your energy used/energy input ratio is suitable you can of course use batteries to extend travel time into the night. But it may just be more efficient to not move much at nighttime...) While there would likely be both advantages and disadvantages of this compared to a sailing ship, it's another way you can get 'free' transportation. The question is whether it's possible to make a ship with a large enough surface area to carry a useful load at reasonable speeds... (also the logistics of it I suppose. - since you can't block the solar panels, that means you'd need a loading scheme for the ship that doesn't require lowering things onto it from directly above... Or at least, you'd have to be able to get a load under the solar panels. - this is trivial for a passenger ship, but somewhat more convoluted for a cargo ship.) Regardless of whether that's viable or not, there's certainly some interesting 'free' power options that could be attempted (or revisited) for shipping...

[@FlatEarthMath]

@Cadde, I think it's important to clarify what is meant by water resistance. It's not the surface area per se, but rather the volume of water displaced. You could make a ship's hull out of a hydrophobic substance, reducing the actual friction to near zero, and it will still have to displace tons of water as it moves through it. This is why hydrofoils are so ingenious, they eliminate much of the "displacement" and replace it with "lift" which of course requires speed. :-)

[@jonadabtheunsightly]

@@hedgehog3180 There's a larger obstacle than roll: nobody has ever built a sailing ship anywhere near the size of a modern containerized freighter. If the eight largest sailing ships ever built were all still around, and if you could collect them all fully loaded, repackage their cargo into modern shipping containers, then cut up the ships themselves and pack them into shipping containers too, plus all their supplies and crew (ethics aside) and everything else, you could load all of that onto a single modern freighter with room to spare and take it through the Panama canal in one trip. Even setting aside the very significant (especially in light of locks) issue of shape, just scaling up a sailing ship to be able to carry an amount of cargo commensurate with what a modern large freighter carries, is a decidedly non-trivial exercise. Oh, and those eight largest "sailing" ships ever built that I'm talking about? I went ahead and included the Great Eastern, which in addition to sails also had steam engines; it had more than twice the displacement of any of the others, over 32 thousand tons, which was absolutely huge in its day. She was broken up for scrap in 1889. And yes, I'm comparing the total displacement of the sailing ships, vs the deadweight cargo capacity of a modern freighter.

[@MrKoemgun]

Some waterdams pump water uphill when the electricity cost is low to "store" energy. Is there any canal that does the same to save water ?

[@GeekIWG]

Actually makes me wonder if it would be possible to generate electricity from the flow of water in the locks. Would the small amount of generated electricity even be worth it? Of course, it definitely wouldn't be enough electricity to pump the water back up.

[@buttonasas]

I would think reservoirs are already situated in such places where nature itself does a lot of the "filling back up" for you. Forces of nature are often so grand we can't really match them. But we use them. Would love to hear from somebody more informed than me.

[@Bordpie]

@@GeekIWG In theory yes, although it would only be worth it on busy locks. The generator would need to handle a high flowrate so the locks still fill and empty quickly, and they would need to work under varying water head (pressure differential caused by height difference between the lock and canal water levels) and flowrate to be efficient. Some people may be concerned by the effect on wildlife and the turbine would need to be robust to deal with occasional trash and vegetation in the canal. So it's a little more complicated than it first sounds. I believe there are micro-hydro plants installed besides some locks which work on excess natural flow of water down the canal. In the UK a lot of locks are quite leaky so it's not always worth it.

[@WarrenGarabrandt]

@@GeekIWG The amount of energy you are able to get from water flowing downhill is proportional to how far down hill the water is flowing. Since the basins for the locks are basically at the same level as the lock with only a few meters difference in height between them, and the useful work of the water is being used to raise ships, putting a hydroelectric generator in line with that water flow would not generate any useful amounts of energy. If the elevation difference of the pools or the locks was so large that that you could get a meaningful amount of energy from it, it would mean you are wasting a lot of water in your lock design. If the lock is designed efficiently already, you wouldn't have any left over energy for the generators to harness.

[@Sorenzo]

@@GeekIWG Makes ME wonder what kind of huge hydroelectric dam you could put in a place like Panama since you can have unlimited and unending flow from the Pacific to the Caribbean...

[@juanamado9508]

Cheers from Panama! Everybody's under lockdown, but the Panama Canal remains working 24/7 to help the world's cargo move along.

[@rolling_marbles]

Very nice video as always! I live on the Mississippi River next to one of the Lock and Dams and one never thinks of the water loss going down river. They do have pumps that move the water back to the “upper pool” when the river levels are low, otherwise when the river levels are high, they can just free flow the water into the “lower pool”. It’s fun to watch a huge barge just mystically rise up in the air and go up-river, or to be in the lock when you are locking up river.

[@flappy7373]

every time i hear you say, "hi. i'm grady, and this is practical engineering..." i giggle. i swear, grady is the perfect name for a civil engineer. you couldn't have a more fitting name. lol.

[@eyesofstatic9641]

He's got the name, knowledge and look! He's got it all!

[@seriouscat2231]

He says it so fast that I wonder for a second if 1) "ham grady" is some kind of food and 2) what has it got to do with a video on engineering.

[@julianros9808]

"water is self leveling" is the mating call of flat earthers

[@cheesebusiness]

Flat Earth doesn’t contradict this law

[@stevenkelby2169]

@@cheesebusiness What Does flat earth contradict?

[@samjames1253]

True. And at that level of intelligence, the mate they attract would ask "But what happens when we drain the Pacific Ocean from letting it go out of the locks".

[@vladdohan9396]

@@cheesebusiness No, flat earthers do not contradict this law, they build their whole argument around it and say : "If you know a little physics etc etc." . And that's the problem, that they know a little physics, no more, no less, just a little to kinda give them an idea that they have a grasp on how things work, but they fail miserably like the uneducated chumps they are. If they would actually take the time understand thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, astrophysics and other subjects that can't be understood in 2 minutes from a google search, they would find out that they are so wrong on so many levels that it's embarrassing.

[@blipco5]

As the water leaves the last lock it pours out into space. Soon the Earth will be dry.

[@jockellis]

This was great. One of my most enjoyable hours or so was spent touring the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY. I was especially interested in the methods used by farmers to dig the canal.

[@corgraveland4874]

Perfect explanation or education! Thanks Grady and best wishes for the new year 2021!

[@stephenbenner4353]

One thing about engineering is that you can’t always completely predict the consequences. When they expanded the Panama Canal, it changed traffic patterns on my local interstate thousands of miles away in Virginia and even more so up north in Pennsylvania as good being shipped began to take different routs. I’m not sure if the negative economic impact on a rail hub like Chicago, but it’s certainly increased business for ports such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk.

[@kylevaughn6984]

as a marine transportation student at the California maritime academy this is really interesting to me

[@Travarss]

In Sault Ste Marie (Michigan), ice on the great lakes makes shipping difficult (sometimes impossible), so the Soo Locks are actually closed and drained during winter. During this time they inspect, repair, and clean the locks. This year, they found roughly 600,000 pounds of debris in the largest lock, including sand, rocks, and even tools lost off passing ships.

[@hernanruiz756]

Another excelent video, I love that you build things to demonstrate what you're talking about

[@mvmlego1212]

Wow, I was always under the impression that the water in locks was pumped back up to higher segments of the canal. Thank you for clearing that up and explaining how they actually work.

[@rareroe305]

I live in southern Ontario, so I'm reasonably close to the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Rideau Canal, and the Welland Canal. So heck yeah, I know me some locks!

[@robertpearson8798]

Yes, and considering that it has the four upper lakes to draw on, conserving the water at the Welland Canal doesn’t seem to be an issue.

[@Divadosaurus]

Fascinating. Great script with good use of models and diagrams with excellent editing. The percentage of YT channels that give you so much fundamental knowledge in such a condensed time is very small.

[@987946216430]

great episode! I annoyed my family about 6 years ago when we were travelling in southern Ontario and i pulled over to watch 2 boats come through the locks in Welland :) very impressive to watch them work.

[@gus473]

👍 "The Ditch" is a true feat! But for sheer coolness in moving boats upward, please do an episode on Scotland's Falkirk Wheel!!! 😎✌️

[@peteragurkis3590]

I love how as soon as I thought to myself "but wait, wouldn't you run out of water?" he explained exactly that

[@KietNguyen-om5wc]

This totally answered my question about loss of water. Thanks! love it. Genius!!

[@samelita007]

I've seen the Panama canal hundreds of times, and as an engineer, it mesmerizes me more and more each time

[@constantoine]

I remember back when I was doing those in Minecraft to get up the slope to my house I guess art imitates life

[@recklessroges]

That leaves space for another video to cover the dangers and challenges of having the water flow as fast as possible, (to limit the time in the lock) with the risks of death from a person falling into the lock during lowering of the lock. More of a numberphile issue, but the number of times the lock has to be filled can be N+1 depending on the state of the lock and the direction and order of the ships.

[@ericduck8273]

As a civil engineer, I understand most of the subjects that you talk about, but I enjoy your videos, it is interesting to review subjects. Eric S. DUCK, P.E. 19854 Louisiana

[@mikepurewal5816]

Thanks for the clarification. I was always wondering how the Panama Canal operated, this explains vast majority of the system. 👍🙏

[@LyricsFred]

As a Panamanian I'm glad you talked about our Canal. Panama is the bridge of the world and hearth of the universe

[@marvk]

Wow, never thought I‘d see Hanover, Germany mentioned on this channel! I’ve been to that lock many times!

[@matthewhall5571]

marvknet what was it like there in person?

[@marvk]

I'm very used to locks, I used to live close to one for many years, so not that spectacular! It's noteworthy that it's a double lock, and the buildings are quite distinct.

[@Ges_who]

Loved this one! I've been to the Panama canal but the thought of saving water never crossed my mind. Like all your videos this was really interesting! Thanks!!

[@RC-nq7mg]

I live minutes away from a lock and dam/bridge arrangement over the red river in Manitoba. i have never used the locks myself, but they are fully accessable to the public. one day when i get myself a boat, which should have been this year but was delayed because of obvious financial concerns, i plan on using them from time to time.

[@bcb7655]

Hello Grady, and thank you for this very interesting video! I have a question for you: For greater efficiency, would it be possible to "pair"canal locks the same way boat lifts are used today? I'm not an engineer but here is how I imagine this system would work: - One canal lock (the "descending lock") is used by a ship going downhill, while at the same time, another lock (the "ascending lock"), is used by a boat going uphill. - Both locks would be identical in height, volume, and location. - Both locks would have to be operated at the same time, with one ship per lock going in opposite directions, or a single ship and an empty lock. During operation: 1- Starting with one lock full and the other empty, the water of the descending lock would be used to fill the ascending lock, until both locks' basin are half-full, at equilibrium. 2- Water would then have to be pumped from the descending lock to the ascending lock to go the other half of the way down/up. 3- Here's where it gets interesting: for increased efficiency, the turbine located in the penstock between the two basin could be used to generate electricity for the first half of the descending lock drainage (phase 1), and given access to an energy storage solution, would be able to return that energy to supplement the pumping of the water during phase 2 If this system is used with only phase 1 and 2, it would result in a 50% save in the energy used for pumping and up to a 100% save in water (minus the disparities in displacement between the ships), while allowing for double the capacity, given proper timing, and at the price of increased capital expenditures for an additional lock. This system is interesting to me because it potentially is very water-savvy, allowing for very tall canal locks, with a If phase 3 is doable, which suppose a reciprocating turbine/pump coupled to a generator/motor and energy storage, the energy savings could be up to 70-80% (quoted efficiency of pumped hydro storage, which i guess would be the efficiency of the pump) of the energy used during phase 2, minus the loss of the electricity storage, depending on the method : injecting the energy into the grid while asking the local power plant to decrease its production, batteries, super-capacitors, hell even a flywheel connected directly to the turbine could be imagined. Then again, I'm not an engineer and I may have missed something. Thank you for reading all this, and thanks again for this amazing video!

[@lucas29476]

haven't read your whole comment but pretty sure this is implemented at Panama :)

[@Maxikxng]

Give this guy an canal lock Engineering Job

[@misakamikoto8785]

All fun and game till you hear "Little click out of 1, nothing out of 2, binding on 3 and 4...."

[@ThisIsTenou]

"aaaand just that easy we got this thing open! I'd certainly not recommend this as a serious protection against floods, or anything really. Im any case, that's all I have for you today..."

[@gyatoch.7225]

let me try that again so we know it isn't a fluke..

[@samrussell5484]

Hey grady! I just wanted to say thanks for your great videos! I used many for inspiration in ky physics and I always love watching!

[@stevemurray6400]

These are the toppest notch practical videos on the market

[@azharshaikh8944]

I feel like after 3 years of watching your videos you’ll make me switch my degree to civil engineering

[@NativeVsColonial]

But I feel like after reading Q-U-R-A-N... 💣💥💥🤡

[@leonardo9259]

@@NativeVsColonial weak bait

[@roscoesgarage732]

@@NativeVsColonial a

[@jur4x]

"Not the only way to lift ships up and down. But that's the story for another time" Three Gorges and Krasnoyarsk dams with their boat lifts enter chat

[@mazyarsalehi7699]

I rarely write comments but i really would like to appreciate your channel and your effort. videos are real educational and scientific based. thanks

[@nfcopier1]

I didn't know about storage basins. I learn something new with each of your videos. 😊

[@clf400]

Please make a video about The Falkirk Wheel if you haven't already

[@Bordpie]

I'm guessing he'll do a video on boat lifts which he hinted at in this video. The Anderton boat lift is another one in the UK including many inclined plane lifts (none still working). There was also a caisson lift which was essentially a sealed container with neutral bouyancy submerged in a large water tank which floated up and down to the different levels although it broke a couple of years after it was made.

[@michaelwarren2391]

See Tom Scott's video on this - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3myapp3h8aWY9k

[@IstasPumaNevada]

Grady, that sweater pattern looks a lot like canal locks. Was that intentional? :) ...Was that the inspiration for this episode even? 8D

[@happalula]

did his wife make the sweater just for todays episode? o.O

[@NotQuiteFirst]

The inspiration was being on lock-down

[@thomaskennings2048]

@@NotQuiteFirst Dear god...

[@jacksonbennett6151]

I was looking for this comment! The birds eye schematic, the in and out flow represented by the blue squares below! It’s a Rorschach lock sweater!

[@MichaelCCasey]

I operated locks on the Champlain Canal in Upstate New York in the Sumner of 2021, and it always was wild how much water moved through the lock.

[@purpleldv966]

I have never thought of basins, multiple and of a larger area, for locks! I learned so much from you! Thanks!

[@1967AJB]

I enjoyed that, thank you. Here in the north west of England, Chorley, we are surrounded by lock systems built during the industrial revolution. Chorley is on the Leeds/Liverpool canal, and we have a “flight” of, I think, about six locks in one run. I found this guy’s video of passing through the town... kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYvdk2Nsd7KijpI ...but I’ve never seen a side pool, very interesting. I don’t think we have them because, it rains all the bloody time here :)

[@simonpackham5780]

1967AJB Is that near Yorkshire? 🤭

[@Bordpie]

The Caen Hill flight has 29 locks in total which rises 237 feet over two miles of canal. 16 locks form a straight uphill climb which takes 6 hours to pass through apparently. Then there is the Bingley 5 rise locks which is a five step staircase lock where you move out out one lock straight into the next one; the lower gate one one lock is also the upper gate on the next. On the Chesterfield canal which is nearest to me, there are the old Norwood locks which consisted of three triple rise locks folled by a four rise lock which then enters the old 1 and 3/4 mile long Norwood tunnel, all built in the 1770s! Unfortunately the tunnel partially collapsed in the early 1900s and this section of the canal has been closed ever since. The Chesterfield canal trust is working on restoring this section but the plans are pretty ambitious, including possibly a new boat lift or five rise lock in one section and excavating a new tunnel.

[@joeyknight8272]

@@Bordpie the uk is filled with canales and looks?

[@himaro101]

@@joeyknight8272 Yeah. We used to have a lot more, but filled most of them in when the train network took over. There's an ongoing project to restore some of them where possible. I grew up next to the Kennet & Avon canal (named for the two rivers that feed most of it). You don't get much cargo on them anymore, they're mostly recreational and nature related now.

[@tomwhipp3245]

I live at one end of the top section of the leeds and Liverpool canal, so glad it's well-kept

[@RBRT02]

"Shipping got its name for a reason" Unlike Cargo

[@jjw951215]

Really awesome! People usually thinks engineering is complex. BUT always. Simple is Best!

[@nonohino]

Always great videos. I grew up around canals here in the UK, so much fun to watch the locks.

[@momothx1]

This was in my recommendations for a while... I’m glad I decided to watch this at 2 o’clock in the morning; day 3 of no sleep, Whilst going throw a big sad

[@kittyyuki1537]

I am a simple person; I see Practical Engineering, I click. I've never been this early in a video before I got lucky this time xD

[@ayuchanayuko]

I am simple person. I see Nagato Yuki, I like.

[@stratcat3216]

Glad you showed the new locks I worked on with MWH Global. Was an amazing project and is great to see them working!

[@MervynPartin]

I went through the Panama Canal a long time before the upgrade so it was very interesting to see how it has been developed.

[@jono7am]

Everyone: Look at all this water wasted by the canal locks. Scotsman: Laughs in Falkirk Wheel.

[@DavidGuild]

That requires more energy, though. It's always a trade-off.

[@rikwisselink-bijker]

I came to the comments looking for this. And as far as the energy requirements: you could either use hydro-power (which admittedly would waste water), or just accept you need a bigger external power source.

[@VinayPai]

The Falkirk Wheel is cool and all, but it's designed for 20 meter boats that weigh a few tens of tons, not 366 meter cargo ships that weigh 120,000 tons

[@catprog]

@@DavidGuild Only to overcome the friction of the wheel.

[@simongeard4824]

@@VinayPai Wouldn't it be awesome to see a version sized for those big ships? Totally impractical, of course, but how cool would that be?

[@JPRTonundFilmstudio]

Hey One thought I had: The higher the potential-difference between two tanks, the faster the transfer of water is going to be. So my thought: Doesn't that also mean, the more tanks/basins you have, the slower the whole process? I mean saving water is one thing, but time is another big cost factor, isn't it?

[@UnbeltedSundew]

There are practical limitations to the speeds you can move the water around, because the currents can also push the boats which has the potential to damage either the locks, or boats, or both. That's besides general wear and tear, which will occur faster with faster movement of water. Also consider that in terms of time locks like the Suez or Panama canals save time measured in weeks rather than minutes (and are priced accordingly, they are not cheap).

[@MikeV8652]

@@UnbeltedSundew The Suez Canal is at sea level throughout and has no locks.

[@UnbeltedSundew]

@@MikeV8652 True but it is the direct competition to the Panama canal, and as far as I understand it maintains similar pricing. It has other drawbacks since it connects to the Med and ships have to go around Gibraltar and Spain to get to Northern Europe. The time ships spend in the locks in Panama can be measured in hours. I wasn't timing it but to me it seemed like it took a cruise boat about 20-40 minutes to go through one of the old locks when I was there.

[@MikeV8652]

@@UnbeltedSundew Oh, I wasn't trying to refute your main points, which are valid. I was merely correcting the notion that the Suez Canal has locks.

[@UnbeltedSundew]

@@MikeV8652 No worries. The clarification was needed. I wasn't thinking when I wrote that sentence.

[@mspacone]

Love it - thanks for the education. I wish you could do an hour on each one of your topics!

[@rajithraji]

I really thought each time the water has to be pumped in between in each of those locks!!!! 😵 Searching a lot about how Panama canal works. But this one randomly clears many basic doubts on locks. Thank you.

[@danielleee6533]

Here after Evergreen

[@WTFBOOMDOOM]

5:11 :D

[@kevinhibbard320]

Ditto

[@jabeezus5200]

Thought it was 'ever given'

[@perrydiddle3698]

When I was younger, I used to think they used large pumps to fill and drain the locks.😂

[@ObservationofLimits]

I wouldn't be surprised if smaller locks do

[@Winasaurus]

@@ObservationofLimits Nearly no locks use pumps. Kind of defeats the purpose, and if you were to use a pump you may as well just use it to pump water from the lower level to the higher level and ignore the lock entirely. I've got a ton of small locks near me going down a canal and every single one of them is hand operated. Big gate style doors you open slightly to let water in, then all the way to let the boat out.

[@hagerty1952]

Great stuff here! Some other nifty details about canals and locks I've picked up over the years: 1) From "Marriage of the Waters" (a book on the building of the Eire Canal) the author describes how Da Vinci designed the lock gate with the two halves opening inward, and each gate door slightly longer than half the width of the canal. In this way, the doors come together before being parallel with each other and the peak facing in. The pressure of the water will force the two ends together making a self-adjusting seal (the higher the water the tighter the seal). 2) In David McCullough's book, "The Path Between the Seas" (on the building of the Panama Canal) he mentions a few reasons that a sea-level canal was, if not impossible, at least impractical. 2a You touched on the first that more that twice the amount of dirt would have to be excavated. Not just because it would be lower, but because a large portion of the canal (as built) uses Lake Gatun to freely navigate between the lock sections, meaning more length to the excavation. 2b Lake Gatun would wind up being drained and all of its feeders would cause the current in the canal to run at 5 to 10 knots due to the lower elevation (greater head pressure) and the narrower channel. Not to mention, as you did, that the lake supplies water to the local populace. 2c This one I find personally fascinating, that the levels of the Atlantic and Pacific are not the same, with sea "level" being up to 12 feet different across Panama (I forget which one is higher). This means that there would be a unidirectional current flow downhill adding to the flow from watershed drainage in one direction and subtracting it in the other. 3) The Great Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania was caused by canals. The dam that burst and flooded the city was built as part of the canal system for the mid-Atlantic states in the early 19th Century to provide lock make-up water (as you described). When the railroads put the canals out of business in mid-century, that particular reservoir was turned into a resort for the ultra rich. The resort operators never maintenanced the dam, and when a once-per-century 3-day deluge happened, the earthen dam was breached in the center and quickly eroded, emptying the entire reservoir onto the town about 6 miles downstream.

[@michaelwarren2391]

Thanks for the explanation of the side ponds.

[@haraldehrling8528]

How do canal locks work? Me who goes to flight school: What the hell is that?

[@TheTeknus]

Engineer: How many water basin do you need Germany: YES

[@theliamcooke]

I went down the panama canal last month, wow it was amazing!

[@alexanderfoster3628]

I trained as an Officer of the Watch and have had the pleasure of doing four transits of the Panama Canal using the old locks. A truly incredible piece of engineering and very humbling when you learn how many died to build it. The mules (small trains) used to help maneuver ships in the old locks are very interesting too watch. An entire gang of workers come on board each ship to manage the wire cables used to connect us to the mules.

[@Moletrouser]

Surely the mules are not trains, but locomotives…

[@WaveArsenal]

Invention: Use the lock ponds as "pumped storage" to generate electricity and then run pumps to partially recover water in the upper locks

[@ugabuga2586]

If you add generators and pumps to the ponds it would slow the water (and therefore the lock cycle) tremendously, not to mention their price.

[@mikebenza]

"They're also not the only way to move a boat up or down, but that's a topic for another video." You've got to be talking about the Falkirk Wheel, right?

[@pezomarko]

now that is some efficient system, not this rain dependent bs.

[@SimpleAmadeus]

Moving a boat down is pretty easy. Just need 1 hole.

[@firstnamelastname9596]

Excellent video as always. Keep up the great work!

[@BeamerPlug]

Grady is one of the best teachers ever!