Posted on 07/31/2016 2:30:19 AM PDT by moose07
A new exhibition marking 300 years since the birth of canal pioneer James Brindley has opened. How did his work transform the English landscape and unlock a new era in the Industrial Revolution?
When James Brindley sought Parliament's backing for his plan for an aqueduct over the River Irwell in Lancashire, he apparently employed a novel means of gaining their attention.
Taking out a block of Cheshire cheese, the man who engineered England's first canal carved out a model of the waterway he hoped to build.
"It's not clear if he cut it into pieces and put it in water to illustrate how waterproof troughs worked or if he carved arches to show how an aqueduct could work," said Nigel Crowe, from the Canal & River Trust.
"The other story is he brought in a lump of clay and bashed that into shape.
"If it is true or not, it is a nice bit of fiction."
Born in Tunstead in the Derbyshire hills in 1716, Brindley moved as a child to a farm in Leek, Staffordshire, left to the family by their Quaker relatives.
His early career focused on building and repairing mills in the area, where he learned to control water flows.
A meeting with the Duke of Bridgewater led to the start of the Bridgewater Canal, commissioned in 1759, to transport coal from the duke's mine at Worsley to Manchester.
At the time a pioneering feat, the waterway became recognised as the first real canal in Britain.
The building of the Bridgewater Canal's Barton Aqueduct - the structure he had demonstrated with cheese - became his most famous feat, opening on 17 July 1761.
It was the first navigable aqueduct to be built in England and a structure that would stand for another 100 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Such men of vision amaze me. I didn’t see the internet boom, the social media boom, and I’m sure I wont see the next boom :)
Foresight isn’t one of my strong points and admire such men who have vision of what tomorrow can bring!!!
So simple ,yet so revolutionary.
A ditch wide enough to float boats along.
Genius. :)
Canals have been around for a long time previously, but it’s seeing the need and having the B*lls to act on it.
If I lived back then, I could stare at that ditch for years wondering how boats could get through :)
The ONLY time i had foresight before everyone else was when I had a vending machine route and put Snapple CANS in vending machines when even Snapple at the time said Cans were not viable as a profit maker, only bottles were, in vending machines.
Now there are snapple can vending machines everywhere.
Some claim to fame :)
*ping*
Proof of a forward thinking CAN-do attitude. :)
Two short related videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-kvbY95qAk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLMtnI483Go
I wish I could be a man of vision...and I’m a female.
Haven’t had many good ideas since and the clock’s ticking :)
CAN do.. lol!!!!!!
I just got it!!!
I’m so ####ing slow lol.
That was a good one!!
Just roll me into a nursing home at 48 and lie about my age on the application. No one will know :)
ROFL!!!!
Women have the best forward thinking vision. Silly egos and wasteful pride dont get in the way or cloud their judgemnt.
Then howcum so many of them are constantly telling their husbands, “It can’t be done?”
I’m not touching that one! I’ve taken enough beatings on the board tonight!
That’s beautiful. Notice there’s a walking lane also, I think.
Here in the US, the most famous canal is/was the Erie Canal (1825). It was not the first nor the last but probably the most successful. Shipping costs dropped from $100/ton to $8/ton at its height. It opened up the Great Lakes area for domestic and international access (locking in New York City as THE Atlantic port city!)
Internationally, canals were game changers. I was reminded of one of the greatest ones while watching this year's Tour de France when they crossed the Canal du Midi. Connecting the Atlantic / Bay of Biscay at the Gironde Estuary to the Mediterranean Sea at Sete. Completed in 1681, it is reputed to have dropped the price of wheat in Southern France about 70%.
Yep, but it was originally for the horse-power!
This aqueduct is 'rather' modern being completed in 1801. What makes it truly spectacular is its length (1/5th mile), height (max 136 ft) and 18 piers.
Here is a picture of it from ground level!
seventy percent. Wow!
I was gonna ask why they chose canals instead of building bridges and you answered that in this reply.
Truly remarkable what men can do.
And i’m always up front. I will have to look up the canal you mentioned at the end and I will enjoy looking it up.
I am not well traveled, perhaps my biggest regret. But I enjoy discovering new thins on FR.
The leaders would often investment in these projects themselves.
Nothing like being associated with progress form political gain and make a few quid on the side.
After having argued the daylights out of it in Parliament first, of course.
Truly a thing of beauty and genious.
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