Canal Inclined Plane - History - Timeline

Timeline

• 600BC – The Diolkos, an early Greek inclined plane, was in use.
• 385AD – Inclined planes were in use on the Grand Canal in China.
• 1167 – Nieuwedamme overtoom (a simple type of incline) was built at Ypres.
• 1568 – Wagon of Zafosina in use near Venice.
• 1773 – John Edyvean proposes the use of inclined planes on the St. Columb Canal in Cornwall, UK.
• 1777 – 3 inclined planes or 'dry wherries' begin operation on the Tyrone Canal, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The inclines were a failure and were dismantled by 1787.
• 1788 – An inclined plane is built by William Reynolds and used, for the first time in England, to raise canal boats on England's Ketley Canal.
• 1792 – William Reynolds of Ketley Ironworks constructed several inclined planes on the Shropshire Canal.
• 1793 – American born inventor Robert Fulton wrote a letter to Lord Stanhope suggesting inclined planes instead of locks for Bude Canal in Cornwall. Lord Stanhope replied saying his idea for working the plane had already been thought of by Edmund Leach.
• 1794 – Robert Fulton took out a British patent (# 1988), for improvements to inclined planes including a double inclined plane system to be used to raise canal boats without locks.
• 1794 – Inclined plane built on the Monkland Canal near Blackhill, Scotland.
• 1795 – South Hadley Canal begins operations, on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, United States. The first North American inclined plane canal.
• 1797 – Worsley Navigable Levels underground incline started in 1795 was completed.
• 1800 – Francis Henry Egerton, eighth Earl of Bridgewater (1756–1829) wrote 'The Description of the Inclined Plane at Walkden Moor. (Lancashire)'
• 1801 – Inclined plane built on the Somersetshire Coal Canal
• 1801 – to 1806. Two inclined planes built on the Stollen Canal at Gliwice, Upper Silesia.
• 1806 – Three inclined planes built on the Canal du Creusot near Torcy, France.
• 1825 – to 1831. 23 inclines built on the Morris Canal, USA.
• 1827 – The Rolle Canal in England includes an inclined plane

• 1832 – Mrs. Frances Trollope*, publishes in "Domestic Manners of the Americans" her account of a visit the previous year to see one of the inclined planes of the Morris Canal. This waterway, 100 miles (160 km) long, connected the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, rising more than 1,400 feet (430 m) by means of a series of inclined planes.
• 1834 - The Allegheny Portage Railroad, consisting of 36 miles of track traversing 10 incline planes and the first railroad tunnel in the United States, opens on the Pennsylvania Main Line of Public Works allowing barge traffic to travel between the Juniata and Western Division canals over the 1,399 foot (426 m) Allegheny Front.
• 1837 – The extension to the Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal opens, including two counterbalanced inclined planes and one single-track one.
• 1860 – The first four inclined planes of the Elbląg Canal in Germany (East Prussia), nowadays Poland, were opened.
• 1885 – Keage Incline on Lake Biwa Canal in Kyoto, Japan was built.
• 1900 – Foxton Inclined Plane was built in England.
• 1911 – Foxton Inclined Plane mothballed.
• 1917 – Big Chute Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada was built.
• 1919 – Swift Rapids Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada was built.
• 1921 – Trench plane closes and brings to an end boat carrying inclined planes in Britain
• 1965 – Swift Rapids Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada was replaced by a conventional lock.
• 1969 – Saint-Louis-Arzviller inclined plane the only one of its kind still working in Europe was built on the Marne-Rhine Canal in France.
• 1973 – Montech water slope the first of its kind was built on the Canal latéral à la Garonne in France.
• 1978 – Big Chute Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada was replaced by the new bigger Big Chute Marine Railway.
• 1983 – Fonserannes water slope was the second water slope. It was built on the Canal du Midi in France.
• 2001 – Fonserannes water slope was abandoned on 11 April 2001.
• 2003 – Big Chute Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada, the old small railway was in use for the last time.