Wonder of ScienceTimelapse of the Falkirk Wheel in action; the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world.
Video Credit: David Iliff / CC BY-SA 3.0
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel
Simon Forman@wonderofscience Humans are ridiculous and wonderful
Roderick@wonderofscience it's "made in Scotland... from girders!"
Nigel Moss ๐ป@rvkennedy @wonderofscience Some toots are audible ๐
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)@wonderofscience Is it just me, or does this feel like the end of a process that started with someone in a meeting saying 'locks are tricky to get right and we don't want something with that much engineering complexity in our canal system'?
Unredacted Epstein files now@wonderofscience Brilliant in its simplicity.
Christopher Phin@endali I live quite near the Falkirk Wheel and Iโve STILL never been. Do you know about the statue to the Kelpies? I think youโd like them and it!
sunflowerinrain@chrisphin @endali Love the Kelpies. Sad about the firm that made them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kelpies#/media/File%3AThe_Kelpies_1-1_Stitch.jpg
Kris 
@sunflowerinrain @chrisphin oh this is cool! never heard of it until today
Paul H ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ๐ช๐บAh! You never go to places on your doorstep...
burneRotating the wheel once consumes roughly as much energy as boiling two gallons of water. It doesnโt matter whether the wheel is empty or carrying the maximum of 8 boats (4 up, 4 down) with a total cargo of 200 tonnes.
felixmรผde
Graham Skeats #FBPPR๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ๐บ๐ฆ@burne @wonderofscience @briankrebs I heard two kettles of water when I rode it. Whatever, it's a frighteningly efficient way to lift a 40 ton boat.
@GrahamSkeats @wonderofscience @briankrebs I think there is an assumption fuck-up. I assumed that the kettle in the calculation I saw was an average kettle in this country, just short of a litre. Yes, in this country we boil at least three times as much water as what we need for a cuppa. If you assume 8 mugs + a bit of waste 1.5kWh is spot on.
All you need is the energy to overcome the friction of the bearings and the inertia of the thing.
:hal_9000:@wonderofscience Been there, done that. ;)
Derick Rethans@wonderofscience I've been too!
The Falkirk Wheel in motion
Zeke ๐จ๐ฆ@wonderofscience ๐คฏ. Brilliant!
Rickd6@wonderofscience we have some lift-locks in Ontario Canada that are fascinating (and about 100years old) but this wheel is futuristic!
@wonderofscience I've watched it in action but never had the chance to travel on it.
Brilliant piece of engineering.
Brilliant piece of engineering.
Adron ๐ค๐ป@wonderofscience that is wildly cool!
MinaWhat a genius construction.
Far less moving parts than the boat lift from 1934 I have seen in Brandenburg, Germany.
๐ถ Bach played by Edson Lopes
Deirdre Saoirse Moen
Falkirk wheel timelapse
๊ฎ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐ฑ๐จ๐ฑ๐ง
Rock'n'Roll_ฯapy ๐ป
Le_M_Poireau โ@RocknRoll_Papy c'est gรฉnial ce truc !
@RocknRoll_Papy รงa me fait penser que les gens ne font pas gaffe : ร Toulouse, ร un moment, il y a une rocade qui passe SOUS le canal du Midi qui est alors un pont !
@infosec_jcp ๐๐ done differentlyI like that in this a no sound gif but you can actually see & hear it lokk
Open Water Otter VE7GR๐ณ๏ธโ๐@wonderofscience when someone decides that the Loch should stay unlocked.
Mr. Bruno 
@wonderofscience Very cool!
I found it on Google Maps easily enough but it doesn't have 3D imagery.
@wonderofscience I found more (not sped up) videos on Google Maps. It's super slow, isn't it?
@mrbruno @wonderofscience. It's slow so the boats don't fly off. Or the water that they're floating in.
CB Wright@wonderofscience it very cool but it also hurts my brain when I try to comprehend it. It seems as if there's enough room in the path leading up to the wheel for a single boat going in a single direction, and the picture shows a boat departing on both top in bottom, going in opposite directions.
So... how do they accommodate boats exiting the top wheel _and_ entering the top wheel? It doesn't look like there's enough room.
Calum@ubersoft @wonderofscience Boats have to book a time slot 24 hours in advance, and stay in contact as they're approaching, so there should never be more boats waiting than the lift can accommodate (two large ones, or up to 8 small ones). They do have to pass through the tunnel at the top one at a time, though.
If you look at the satellite view, there are wider stretches of canal nearby where additional boats can stop and wait if required.
@scottishwildcat @wonderofscience Thank you for the additional information!
Sal De Gusto@scottishwildcat @ubersoft @wonderofscience Please tell me the Mini Golf Course has a hole based on a Mini Falkirk Wheel.
Jeff Grigg@goodthinking @scottishwildcat @ubersoft @wonderofscience
Probably not as dynamic as one might hope. But I think we can say yes.
.
Kevin Karhan 
@scottishwildcat @ubersoft @wonderofscience
Funfact: it doesn't require to have "symmetrical travel" to function but streamlining and ordering boats in advance makes shure traffic flows way more smoothly and they're faster at loading & unloading.
It's definitely an upgrade compared to the previous system of multiple gates that took 24hrs to pass through...
Plus they could in theory do it completely passive if the were to like remove a few hundred liters or a few cubic metres at the bottom one and/or adding them up top so that it would swing by itself, tho that would have the foreseeable problem of lateral forces so it's not done for safety reasons...
https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/112369656308774911
Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Yeah, that thing is cool as it's essentially doing a "load swap"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w video,via @[email protected]
๐บ๐ธ ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ง ๐ฅฆLooks like a machine from a sci-fi movie.
Travel time? Open a doorway in a multiverse?
Mark H@wonderofscience We've booked a ride in this for next week.
Larry O'Brien@wonderofscience Gonna' gratuitously add this to my #DnD campaign.
atocci@wonderofscience Oh hey there's a Tom Scott video on this and how it works
Archimedes and a Boat Lift: the Falkirk Wheel
Tim Ward โญ๐ช๐บ๐ถ #FBPE@wonderofscience I can get how a couple of engineers in a pub said "hey, we've got this crazy idea" and sketched it out on a beer mat.
What is far harder to understand is how they then persuaded anyone to fund it!
Xema Blasco@wonderofscience Y yo he tenido la suerte de disfrutarlo.
Joan Mastodon@wonderofscience I saw this in action
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiffshebewerk_Saint-Louis/Arzviller
But it's not so cool ๐
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiffshebewerk_Saint-Louis/Arzviller
But it's not so cool ๐
Supportive Tree-based lifeform@wonderofscience aside from the initial construction, this seems really energy efficient
Hugh Young-Bish@wonderofscience
What is the function of the four "beaks"?
What is the function of the four "beaks"?
@hugh @wonderofscience Just helps to stabilise the overall structure during rotation, from what I remember of my visit.
@scottishwildcat @wonderofscience
I don't see how.
Benjohn@wonderofscience The questions I have are how the gates at the ends work (Very well, apparently). โฆ and if the spiky tooth bits that lead on the rotating part have a function or are aesthetic.
Axel Foley@wonderofscience Brilliant, had a trip on it last years, wondrous ๐
@wonderofscience Yeah, that thing is cool as it's essentially doing a "load swap"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w video via @tomscott
Archimedes and a Boat Lift: the Falkirk Wheel
Malcolm Herbert@fullofmang ... I learned about the Falkirk Wheel about one whole week after having returned from the UK where I'd been about 5km from it at one point in our trip ... maddening