I cannot for the life of me understand how they work on a canal for example. Please dumb it down as much as possible
In: Engineering
A lock is a watertight chamber, big enough for a boat to fit into. It has gates which will only open when the water is equal level on both sides of the gate (it’s not possible to move the gates if the water is different levels, basically).
So the boat approaches one side – if the water isn’t level with the side they’re approaching from, they close all the gates and open the sluices at whichever side is needed to adjust the water level.
Once the water is the correct level, they close all the sluices and open the gate. Move the boat in, close the gate, open the relevant sluice to adjust the level, close the sluice again, open the other gate, move out and off you go.
On some waterways, the convention is to leave the locks either empty or full, in order to save water or for some other reason.
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