On Locks

 Today I walked over to Teddington Lock to see what the river looks like a low tide. To be honest, it didn't seem very different to my untrained eye. What I did find though, was very cool. The locks were in full operation moving boats up and down the river. 

While I know what a lock is and roughly how they work, I've never actually seen one in operation. It was very cool. 

For those of you who don't know, let me give you a brief overview. A lock is to move boats from one section of a canal to another where the water level is appreciably different. Boats don't do so well going uphill or downhill (ie: waterfalls) so humans have employed locks to help boat traffic move along. Basically, you block off a section of a canal with gates. The boats drive into this section. Then they drain the water using some sort of magic until the water level of the closed section is the same as the next section. They then open the next section of the gate to let the boats go free. The gate closes behind them and then they refill the gated section. Going the other way it works the same but in reverse. They drive into the gated section. The gate closes behind them; they fill the closed section with water until the water level is the same as the next section, open the gate and then the boats drive out and continue on their way. 

I was really surprised how fast the locks fill and empty. It is incredibly fast considering the volume of water they are moving. Enjoy the videos!

Click here if you want to learn more about the history of the Teddington Lock.

The Teddington Barge Lock refilling to prepare for the next round of boats.

The Teddington Barge Lock draining to let the boats in the lock pass through to the next section of the river.