Comments on: The Falkirk Wheel

By: sweeper

sweeper — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:47:22 +0000

“Back in my country the creater of this contraption would have been publicly shamed”

Cocoabongo, not sure where your country is, but in my country solving an engineering problem in such an efficient and beautiful way, creating a popular tourist attraction in the process, is considered a good thing.

By: jaegersing

jaegersing — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:46:11 +0000

[quote]Marius said: “Too cool, but yes, it would be great if there was some actual video of it in action instead of just an animation. Now I want to go to Scotland even more!”[/quote]

Sorry for the long delay in posting this. Here’s some video of the Wheel I shot in 2005, but only got around to editing recently. I live in Singapore so haven’t seen the Wheel since then.

http://vimeo.com/1998608
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmOZwB20rOM&fmt=18

By: eagleeye

eagleeye — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:05:45 +0000

Photos and presentation video here

Home video footage here

By: mrdarklight

mrdarklight — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:42:41 +0000

bryon said: “Here’s another type of lock. This is in Peterbourgh, Ontario and utilizes hydralic rams to move the chambers 65ft.

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/waterway/rg_eng_i/hyd.htm“

Ha! Hydraulic rams! Lame! A typical brutish Canadian response to the problem…

By: mrdarklight

mrdarklight — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:34:05 +0000

I love the fact that the engineers and designers decided to make it visually appealing, instead of just a big mechanical contraption, the way it probably would have been done here in the USA. For just a little bit more money, they got something that you actually like to look at.

Yay Scotland! It's true, then... "If it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!"

By: Pascal Leduc

Pascal Leduc — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 02:06:58 +0000

As an engineer (ok junior engineer), I can tell you that we do it ourselves.

EWB (Engineers without borders) http://www.ewb.ca/content/en/index2.shtml serves to facilitate engineers working and building projects in impoverished nations and designing projects for the betterment of man.

Remember that as engineers, our responsibilities lie towards the people and not our bosses, engineers, like other proffesional orders have to right to refuse alterations to their design and can even refuse to work if the project as a whole is flawed, in such cases that the employer would fire him it would be considered an illegal firing, and the employer would get sued (plus whatever unethical buisness practice would get spread over the news).

Enginering is one of the most protected jobs in the world because bowing to managerial pressure can cause the death of hundreds of people.

By: davida

davida — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:17:10 +0000

I’m in awe. I wonder if there are organizations out there that support engineers who believe in doing it right….where there is no compromise. It is too bad that the best paying jobs are with corporate america companies. Does anyone know of organizations that support engineers who want to make a difference?

By: solitas

solitas — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 18:43:14 +0000

Marius said: "Too cool, but yes, it would be great if there was some actual video of it in action instead of just an animation."

Too right - I also wish they'd have a time-lapse movie of the thing in action.

By: AKALucifer

AKALucifer — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:39:58 +0000

I like the way these kind of problems are presented. It always goes something like.
“But there was a problem the canal was 115 feet too high”
Like they hadn’t even of thought about it, and then just at they were about to knock throught to the sea someone said in the knick of time “Wait a minute, this isn’t going to work.”

By: aurifex

aurifex — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:47:02 +0000

Amazing design. A totally unique invention. Bravo to the genius that came up with it.