Feats of Engineering: The Falkirk Wheel

Falkirk, Scotland is home to a one-of-a-kind engineering feat – the world’s only rotating boat lift. This rotating boat lift connects two canals which link Glasgow to Edinburgh. These canals are a vertical distance of 24 meters apart, and it previously required a series of 11 locks to connect them.
The Falkirk wheel has two diametrically opposing steel arms, each of which have a caisson containing approximately 360 m³ of water.  If a boat enters one of the caissons, water is displaced ensuring that the wheel remains balanced regardless of whether there is one boat in the wheel or two. The Falkirk wheel is capable of carrying a boat with a length of up to 21.33 m, and a weight of up to 200 tonnes.
What makes the Falkirk wheel remarkable, it how little power it consumes when lifting a boat. Due to the fact that the opposing arms are balanced, the force of gravity acting on the descending tank does most of the work. The boat lift consumes very little power despite the 300-tonne mass of the boat and water. The wheel is powered by electric motors which require only 22.5 kilowatts. In order to lift a boat, the electric motors consume 1.5 kilowatt-hours. To put that into perspective, 1.5 kilowatt-hours is what boiling 8 kettles of water consumes.
The Falkirk wheel cost £17.5 million, which is equivalent to $28.5 million Canadian. However, the Falkirk wheel brings in money as it has become a popular tourist attraction.
The Falkirk wheel may not be the world’s only rotating boat lift for long, as a rotating boat lift has been suggested for a proposed new canal in Bedfordshire, England.