Canal
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Canal. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an artificial waterway. Mill races, sluiceways, and irrigation canals are also designed to convey water. As generally used, however, the term canal is applied to waterways permitting the passage of boats and ships. Canals are of great antiquity. The Grand Canal of China is more than 800 miles long. In the prosperous days of Babylonia, Mesopotamia was intersected by waterways. Lower Egypt was well provided with canals. The Romans constructed canals from the lower Rhone to the Mediterranean, and from the Tiber to the sea. The plains of Lombardy were connected with the Adriatic Sea. A canal from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean was completed in 1681. It is 148 miles long. It saves a far-about voyage of 2,000 miles through the Straits of Gibraltar. Holland, Belgium, portions of France, England and northern Germany are covered by networks of artificial waterways. A system of canals connects St. Petersburg with the Caspian Sea . A canal 108 miles long, by way of the Main, connects the Danube and the Rhine. The first boat canal in the United States was built in 1793 around the Falls of the Connecticut River at South Hadley. There are now about forty inland canals in the United States with an aggregate length of over 2,470 miles. They have cost $200,000,000. They lie chiefly in New York , Virginia, and intermediate territory. One of importance, 196 miles in length, runs from Chicago to La Salle at the head of navigation on the Illinois River. The Ohio Falls Canal is constructed around the rapids of the Ohio River at Louisville. It is only 11,000 feet long, but is of great importance to navigation. The most celebrated canal in the United States is the Erie, connecting Buffalo on Lake Erie with the Hudson River at Albany, a distance of 352 miles. It was opened in 1825. Its first cost was $7,602,000. The cost of freighting was reduced, however, from $100 a ton to $3. Canada has built three important canals for the improvement of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes waterway. The Sault Ste. Marie Canal permits passage through the rapids between Lakes Superior and Huron; the Welland Canal enables ships to pass the Falls of Niagara; a third passes around the Lachine Rapids in the St. Lawrence River. Of ship canals the Suez Canal is the most celebrated. It unites the waters of the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The Caledonian Canal connects the Firth of Forth and Loch Eil. The Manchester Canal connects that city with Liverpool. The Kaiser Wilhelm Canal connects the North Sea with the Baltic. While digging a ditch through the ground seems very simple, the construction of a canal is really an engineering work of great difficulty. It requires to be carried over waterways on aqueducts. The Erie Canal crosses the Mohawk River on arches twice. The Suez Canal is level from end to end. In case, however, that a canal of this sort would require too deep a ditch in the middle of its course, it must be constructed in sections at different levels, connected by locks. In its simplest form a lock is a water-tight passageway, or a basin fitted with doors at the upper and lower ends. When a boat desires to descend into a lower part of the canal, it enters the basin and the upper doors are closed behind it. The water is then allowed to run out of the basin until the boat has dropped to the level of the section below. The lower doors are then opened and the boat passes on its way. In case it is desired to raise the boat to a higher level, it enters the basin from below, the doors are closed behind it, and water is admitted from above until the basin fills, raising the boat to the level of the upper section. The upper doors are then opened and the boat proceeds on its way. Sometimes a number of locks are built at the same place. In this way a boat is enabled to climb a hill--one step at a time. Sometimes canal boats are pulled up an inclined plane by steam power. What are known as tank elevators are used in the canals between Belgium and Paris. Peterborough, Canada, has one of the largest canal locks of this sort in the world. It consists of two water-tight steel boxes, each holding 1,300 tons of water. These ascend and descend by hydraulic power, between three great guide towers, 100 feet high, built of solid masonry. When one box is up, the other is always down. A boat enters a box; the gates close; a little additional water is introduced into the other box, and the boat rises swiftly and steadily to the higher level. The operation is almost automatic, three minutes being required to make the lift. The entire lockage is accomplished in twelve minutes. This lock was completed in 1903 at a cost of $500,000. The Erie Canal has seventy-two locks. Fifty-seven of them are double. Boats are lifted at West Troy 188 1/2 feet, and at Lockport 54 1/2 feet. The total difference in the level of the highest and the lowest section of the canal is 568 feet. The locks of the Morris Canal in New Jersey lift boats 1,084 feet. Canals require to be wide enough so that boats going in opposite directions may pass each other. In ship canals the ship is usually towed by a tug. In boat canals it is pulled by means of a towrope and horses or mules driven on shore along a towpath constructed for the purpose. A rudder serves to prevent the boat from running ashore. The canal men live usually with their tow animals in the boat. Many families have no other home. See Erie Canal ; Suez Canal ; Panama Canal ; Corinth ; Sault Ste. Marie; Paris ; Lock ; Nova Scotia American Canals. Showing the cost, date of construction, length, and navigable depth of the principal commercial canals of the United States and Canada. Name. Cost of construction When completed Length miles Depth feet Albemarle and Chesapeake (Va. and N. C.) $1,641,363 1860 41 7 1/2 Augusta (Ga.) 1,500,000 1847 9 11 Black River (N. Y.) 3,581,954 1849 35 4 Cayuga and Seneca (N. Y.) 2,232,632 1832 25 7 Champlain (N. Y.) 4,044,000 1822 81 6 Chesapeake and Delaware (Md. and Del.) 3,730,230 1829 14 9 Chesapeake and Ohio (Md. and D. C.) 11,230,327 1850 181 6 Companys (La.) 90,000 1847 22 6 Delaware and Raritan (N. J.) 4,888,749 1818 66 7 Delaware Division (Pa.) 2,433,350 1830 60 6 Des Moines Rapids (Iowa) 4,582,009 1877 7 1/2 5 Dismal Swamps (Va. and N. C.) 2,800,000 1822 22 6 Erie (N. Y.) 52,540,800 1826 387 7 Galveston and Brazos (Tex.) 340,000 1851 38 3 1/2 Hocking (Ohio) 975,481 1843 42 4 Illinois and Michigan (III.) 7,357,787 1848 102 6 Illinois and Mississippi (Ill.) 7,350,000 1895 75 7 Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. (Pa.) 4,455,000 1821 108 6 Louisville and Portland (Ky.) 5,578,631 1872 2 1/2 Miami and Erie (Ohio) 8,062,680 1835 274 5 1/2 Morris (Pa. and N. J.) 6,000,000 1836 103 5 Mussel Shoals and Elk R. Shoals (Tenn.) 3,156,919 1889 16 6 Ogeechee (Ga.) 407,810 1840 3 3 Ohio (Ohio) 4,695,201 1835 317 4 Oswego (N. Y.) 5,239,526 1828 38 7 Pennsylvania (Pa.) 7,731,750 1839 193 6 Portage Lake and Lake Superior (Mich.) 529,892 1873 25 15 Santa Fe (Fla.) 70,000 1880 10 5 Sault Ste. Marie (ship canal) 4,000,000 1895 3 18 Schuylkill Navigation Co. (Pa.) 12,461,600 1826 108 6 1/4 Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan (Wis.) 99,661 1881 1 1/4 15 St. Mary's Falls (Mich.) 7,909,667 1896 1 1/3 21 Susquehanna and Tidewater (Pa. and Md.) 4,931,345 1840 45 5 1/2 Walhonding (Ohio) 607,269 1843 25 4 Welland (ship canal) (Ont.) 23,736,353 1900 26 3/4 14 Foreign Canals. Name. Length miles Depth feet Bottom width feet Cost Suez, Mediterranean and Red Seas 90 31 108 $100,000,000 Cronstadt, St. Petersburg 16 20 1/2 220 10,000,000 Corinth, Corinth and AEgina Gulfs 4 26 1/4 72 10,000,000 Manchester Ship, Manchester and Liverpool 35 1/2 26 120 75,000,000 Kaiser Wilhelm, Baltic and North Seas 61 29 1/2 72 40,000,000 Elbe and Trove 41 10 72 6,000,000 Amsterdam 13 1/2 23 88 Panama canal (1915) 49 150 140,000,000
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an artificial water-course or channel, especially used for the passage of boats. The Egyptians very early made a canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea. It was reopened by Pharaoh Necho about 605 b. C., and at intervals by others after him. Most of the ancient nations had canals. The great canal of China was constructed partly in the 7th and partly in the 9th century A. D.; it is 825 miles long. The first known English canal was cut by the Romans at Caerdike. The Trent and the Witham were joined in 1134, and the Bridgewater canal was commenced in 1759. The Caledonian canal was projected in 1803, but not opened till 1822. The Erie canal was begun in 1817 and completed in 1825. The Amsterdam, or Great North Holland canal, was completed in 1825. It is 125 feet wide at the water surface, 88 feet and 7 inches wide at the bottom, and has a depth of 20 feet; it extends from Amsterdam to the Helder, 51 miles. The Languedoc, or Canal du Midi, connecting the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, was completed in 1861; its length is 148 miles; it has more than 100 locks and about 50 aqueducts, and its highest part is 600 feet above the sea; it is navigable for vessels of upward of 600 tons. The Suez canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, was opened on Nov. 17, 1869. Its length is 99 miles, with a width of 327 feet for 77 miles, and 196 for the remaining 22 miles. Its depth is 26 feet. Its success suggested the project of cutting through the isthmus joining North and South America. This undertaking, begun by the renowned engineer of the Suez canal, M. de Lesseps, was, after a prosecution to a stage near completion, abandoned in 1892, as a result of a terrific scandal, in which nearly every functionary connected with the enterprise was involved. A number of them (including the venerable M. de Lesseps) were tried in France and convicted of bribery and misappropriation of funds, the result of the agitation being to shake public confidence in the enterprise to a degree that rendered it impossible to raise money for its further continuance -for the time being at least. The great Manchester ship canal, extending from Eastham (the head of navigation of the Mersey river near Liverpool) to Manchester, England, was opened Jan. 1, 1894. The Corinth ship canal, across the Isthmus of Corinth, was opened by King George of Greece, Aug. 6, 1893. It is nearly four miles long, 80 feet 8½ inches wide, 24 feet 3 inches deep, and cost $15,000,000. On June 20, 1895, the great Baltic and North Sea canal was o opened by the German Emperor in the presence of a navy representing all nations. Work began on the great Chicago drainage canal Sept. 3, 1892, and by Jan. 1, 1900, it was completed. The main channel is 29 miles long, of which about nine miles was cut through solid rock 22 feet deep. The Cape Cod canal is an artificial canal excavated across Cape Cod, connecting Buzzard Bay with Barnstable Bay. It was practically completed in 1914. The canal cuts off about 70 miles in the distance traveled by steamers between New York and Boston. The canal was taken over by the United States Government on July 23, 1918, following an attack made by a German submarine on several coal barges passing through the canal. Considerable siderable dredging dred was carried on in enlarging the canal during 1918. As a result vessels of 7,000 tons were able to pass through. Other important canals, either in process of construction or in contemplation in 1919, included a deep water-way to connect the Chicago Drainage canal with the Illinois river. The bill providing for this was passed by the Illinois Legislature. The fourth lock of the Sault Ste. Marie canal in Michigan was opened to traffic on Sept. 18, 1919. The construction of this lock greatly increased the facilities of this canal. The Sault Ste. Marie canal, although only one and one-third miles in length, was constructed at a cost of over $4,000,000. Other notable canals in the United States are the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 185 miles long, costing over $11,000,000, and extending extending from Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D. C.; the Florida Coast Line canal, 370 miles long, costing $3,500,000 and extending from Mayport, Fla., to Miami, Fla.; the Illinois and Michigan canal, 96 miles long, costing over $6,000,000, and extending from Chicago to La Salle, Ill.; the Hennepin canal, 75 miles long, costing over $7,000,000 and extending from the Illinois river to the Mississippi river near Rock Island, Ill.; the New Jersey Coastal Inland Waterway, 114 miles long, costing $415,000, extending from Cape May PACIFIC PANAMA OCEAN CHAGRES RIVER COLON GATUN RIVER طورا CULEBRA IS. MIRAFLORES LOCKS CULEBRACUT PEDRO MIGUEL LOCK CULEBRA 27 EMPIRE GORGONA ۱۳ PANAMA RAILROAD CANAL LIMON BAY GATUNANG GATUN LOCKS GATUN DAM SPILL WAY LAKE CHAGRES RIVERI ATLANTIC OCEAN PANAMA CANAL CHAGRES to Bay Head, N. J.; the Pennsylvania an extreme length of 15 miles, and a canal, 193 miles long, costing nearly $8,- width of one mile. Its outlet is Seneca 000,000, and extending from Columbia river. VESSEL ENTERS LOCKI GATEA ATLANTIC LEVEL LOCK I CULVERT GATE B LOCK 2 CULVERT LEVEL OF GATUN LAKE GATE D GATEC" LOCK 3 CULVER GATUN LOCKS, PANAMA CANAL to Northumberland and Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; and the Miami and Erie canal, 274 miles long, extending from Cincinnati to Toledo, O., and costing over $8,000,000.