The course

The Locks

Locks origin
Mechanics of a lock
Lock functioning
Agde round lock
Fonserannes locks
Trèbes lock painted by Yves Donval

Lock Origin

Waterway navigation was at all time subject to natural hazards.
It was in 1438 that two Italiens engineers invented the first lock.Their names were Filippo Degli Organi and Fiorananti Di Bologna, and they were the designers of Vierenna lock, near Milano, on the Naviglio Grande.
Around 1460, Léonard De Vinci invented the sluice gates and the manoeuvering system of the lock.
In 1604 and 1610, for the first time in history Hugues Cosnier presented this invention on the Canal de Briare. In effect, Cosnier was the designor of the multiple locks.

Lock functioning

A lock is a man made pool on a waterway.

It allows boats to negociate a natural fall and gives the passage from the upstream section of the canal to the downstrean part of it. There are various types of lock ; single chambered or others with two or more chambers depending on the differance in water level at the two ends of the lock.

Mechanic of a lock

A lock is an oblong pool of carved stones held together by quicklime. Two doubled gates with mobile vannes closes the lock on each sides.
These gates rotates on a vertical spindle called "poteau tourillon". On their lateral sides, it molds upright a masonry groove called the chardonnet" . These gates are perfectly watertight.