The Underground Incline
Coals were moved between levels using vertical shafts until 1797, when an underground canal inclined plane started in 1795 was completed. It was 453 feet (138 m) long and raised boats 106 feet 6 inches (32.46 m) . There were two locks at the upper level from which two railway tracks descended to the lower main level. Boats entered the upper locks and were seated on wagons. The water was drained from the locks and the boats would descend the incline counterbalanced by a second empty boat ascending the parallel railway line. This incline worked until 1822 and the levels were used for coal transport until 1887, by which time the total length of navigable levels was 46 miles (74 km). The navigable levels continued to be used for drainage with regular inspections by boat until final closure in 1968. The Duke of Bridgewater's heir was Francis Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater, who wrote a 47-page book on the subject of the underground canal entitled "Description du Plan Incliné Souterrain" in 1812 whilst resident in Paris, France.
Read more about this topic: Worsley Navigable Levels
Famous quotes containing the words underground and/or incline:
“It is in our interests to let the police and their employers go on believing that the Underground is a conspiracy, because it increases their paranoia and their inability to deal with what is really happening. As long as they look for ringleaders and documents they will miss their mark, which is that proportion of every personality which belongs in the Underground.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Education must have two foundations—morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defence for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)