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The text below is reproduced, with minor corrections, from the handout provided at the boat lift. Some of the 'character' of the original translation still remains.

THE « FONTINETTES » BOAT LIFT

THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN FRANCE

A VERTICAL HYDRAULIC BOAT LIFT

This boat lift was built on the model of the Anderton lift in Cheshire from 1883 to 1887.

It was officially opened on July 8th, 1888.

It is situated on the Neuffosse canal that connects the Lys with the river Aa. At this point a difference of 13 m. in level had to be overcome.

In the canal that was built at the end of the l8th century, a flight of 5 locks was erected. The passage through these 5 locks took more than an hour. Very often, the boats had to wait a few days, as the traffic was one way part of the week.

By the end of the 19th century, the locks became totally inadequate for the growing traffic. Not only the number of boats had multiplied by 4, but the dimensions of the boats had changed too.

About 1880 a decision had to be taken : either the locks had to be altered or something new hat to be built.

Since 1875 a hydraulic boat lift had been in use at Anderton, in Cheshire. It worked successfully and it overcame a difference in water level of more than 15m.

So the decision was taken to build a lift on this model.

It worked like a pair or scales. Boats at both the higher and lower levels ran into tanks supported on rams, that were moved ' by water pressure. The tanks were balanced and the upper one could be made heavier by taking in some more water, then it descended and the lower one was raised.

The whole structure is composed of an aqueduct to carry the canal over the existing railway to the point where the transfer of boats was to be effected, and the lift itself.

This aqueduct consisted of 2 channels that formed the approaches to the 2 tanks of the lift.

The 2 tanks were supported on rams 2m in diameter, working in cylinders of hydraulic presses communicating with each other through valves. The rams are of cast iron and 15 m long.

The lift was operated by water pressure. One tank was always at the higher level and the other at the lower level of the canal, except during the actual lift, when they passed each other.

A boat to be transferred from the lower level was floated into the tank. The gates at the open end of the tank were closed. In the meantime a similar operation was being carried out at the higher level.

Then water was added to the upper tank by lowering it, so as to take in about 30 cm of water from the canal.

This made the upper tank the heavier of the two. Then the gates were closed and on opening a valve connecting the cylinder (in which the ram worked) with a hydraulic accumulator, water under pressure was led into the cylinder and raised the upper tank to its normal level. Then the balancing could start.

The valves connecting the 2 cylinders were opened and the upper tank moved downwards whine the lighter one was being raised until the new levies had been attained.

The water light gates of the canal and the tank, linked together, were lifted out of the water and the boats proceeded on their wav.

OUTSIDE NEAR THE CANALGATE

When the tank arrived in front of the canal gate, a kind of rubber belt that ran along the canal gate, was inflated with air under pressure coming from an air compressor in the machine room, so that tank and canal channel were « glued » together, so to speak.

Then, small valves in the canal gates were opened and the space between the 2 gates (5 cm) was filled with water. When the water pressure on either side of the gates was the same, the 2 gates could be raised and the boat could leave the tank.

Before starting the balancing, the gates were lowered to close the canal and the tank; the water between the two was pumped away and the rubber belt was deflated.

The total weight of each tank was 792 tons.

Its dimensions :

    39.50 m long

    5.60 m wide

    2.10 m deep

In this form, the structure remained in use for 80 years.

After the 2nd world war, the traffic became heavier and the boats bigger, so that a new solution had to be found.

A new, modern lock was built and open in 1967.

This lock overcomes the difference in level of 13 m in one operation.

Its length is more than 144 m and its width 11 m.

It can manage 12 boats/an hour or 2 convoys of 3000 tons.

The lock is worked with electricity.

WHAT CAN BE VISITED HERE IS :

The workshop :

Where small repairs could be affected. The machines : 2 lathes and a shaping machine were worked hydraulic. A turbine conveyed the energy trough cogwheels and leather straps to the machines .

The machine room :

The 4 compressor pumps were put into action by a turbine. They provide the energy to lift the 70 tons cast iron weight of the water accumulator. Everything was directed by the man in the control room, upstairs. The whole process of taking in, balancing and floating out, took about 22 mn and was carried out by a coherent team of 5 men ; (6 with the keeper of the security lock) : - 2 mechanics in the machine room - 2 men at the tanks - ant the man in the control room.

The barge :

Where visitors can watch a film, made in 1967, some time before the lift stopped working. For future generations this extraordinary building will remain a token of the remarkable technological ability of our ancestors of the 19th century.

Association des Fontinettes - 62510 ARQUES Tel. 03 21 12 62 30 /Fax : 03 21 98 07 69 /fontinettes@free.fr