I think this is one of the most ingenious canal lock designs to date:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

Virtually all you need to do is overcome some friction (note that the 
thing does not dip into water at the lower basin, otherwise energy would 
be needed to displace water in that position). And there's no risk of 
breaking of any cables or hydraulic pipes.

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On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:15:32 +0200, clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

>I think this is one of the most ingenious canal lock designs to date:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel
>

Aye, it's braw. :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> I think this is one of the most ingenious canal lock designs to date:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

> Virtually all you need to do is overcome some friction (note that the 
> thing does not dip into water at the lower basin, otherwise energy would 
> be needed to displace water in that position). And there's no risk of 
> breaking of any cables or hydraulic pipes.

  Somewhat similar ingenious engineering tricks were, in fact, quite common
in antiquity. Nowadays we are too used to everything being done with
electricity, fuel-based motors and the likes, so much that it often feels
that most of humanity has forgotten all the clever tricks that people in
the past had in their sleeves.

  For example, a farmer wants to build an irrigation system which takes some
water from a nearby (large) river to his crops. Problem: The crops are 10
meters higher than the surface of the river. How to lift the water to the
crops?

  In today's dumbed-down lazy society most people just use some electrical
or fuel-based water pump to lift the water, which consumes energy,
pollutes the air, is expensive, and whatnot. Few people realize that
this problem was very ingenuously solved *thousands* of years ago. The
solution is completely automatic and self-supporting (ie. doesn't require
any external power source, besides the flowing river itself), and can be
constructed from cheap basic materials. It's very environment-friendly
because it causes zero pollution and doesn't consume any energy.

  Can you figure out this clever solution?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 19 Sep 2009 10:40:39 -0400, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:

> Can you figure out this clever solution?

Yes, if the answer is what I think it is it was reinvented in the 18th Century. 

No spoilers :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Warp wrote:

>   Can you figure out this clever solution?
> 

A water wheel with either a spiral tube to transfer the water up the 
bank or buckets on the side that are dumped at the top.

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Warp schrieb:
>   For example, a farmer wants to build an irrigation system which takes some
> water from a nearby (large) river to his crops. Problem: The crops are 10
> meters higher than the surface of the river. How to lift the water to the
> crops?
...
 >   Can you figure out this clever solution?

Yup.

If the river flows fast enough, a whater-wheel can be (and often is) 
used, with some buckets attached in a smart way, using simple lever 
principles to use the running-water's power to lift the water up.

(A modern-times alternative, which can reach quite astonishing lifting 
heights even when just a small height difference is available in the 
water source, would be a hydraulic ram.)

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> (A modern-times alternative, which can reach quite astonishing lifting 
> heights even when just a small height difference is available in the 
> water source, would be a hydraulic ram.)

  Good to see that not all ingenuity has died with modern times... :)

  A more complicated invention of antiquity is the so-called south-pointing
chariot. A Chinese invention which is, basically, a chariot with a figure
on top which always points in the same geographical direction regardless of
how the chariot is moved and turned. In other words, the figure acts as a
non-magnetic compass, obviously very useful for travelling long distances.
The invention might be as old as from 2600 BC (although with certainty it's
at least from 200 AD).

  Now that one requires a bit more engineer ingenuity to build.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pointing_Chariot

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp schrieb:
> 
>   A more complicated invention of antiquity is the so-called south-pointing
> chariot. A Chinese invention which is, basically, a chariot with a figure
> on top which always points in the same geographical direction regardless of
> how the chariot is moved and turned. In other words, the figure acts as a
> non-magnetic compass, obviously very useful for travelling long distances.
> The invention might be as old as from 2600 BC (although with certainty it's
> at least from 200 AD).
> 
>   Now that one requires a bit more engineer ingenuity to build.

Not only that: It also requires high precision in the manufacturing at 
least for parts of the device. Quite a remarkable feat even for 3rd 
century I'd say.

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clipka wrote:
>> The invention might be as old as from 2600 BC 

> Quite a remarkable feat even for 3rd century I'd say.

An even more remarkable feat for being built just days after Noah's flood 
subsided! ;-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Warp wrote:
>   A more complicated invention of antiquity is the so-called south-pointing
> chariot. A Chinese invention which is, basically, a chariot with a figure
> on top which always points in the same geographical direction regardless of
> how the chariot is moved and turned. In other words, the figure acts as a
> non-magnetic compass, obviously very useful for travelling long distances.
> The invention might be as old as from 2600 BC (although with certainty it's
> at least from 200 AD).

It would have to be very heavy, otherwise it might bounce instead of 
roll around corners, and rotation information would then be lost.

Also, I am having trouble visualizing how the device behaves differently 
on curved surfaces (i.e. the Earth) as opposed to a flat plane. I wish 
the article had some diagrams or animations.

-Mike

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