Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Huge insect terrorises canal


Not really. Anyway, what do you think of this dragonfly spotted alongside the Hatton locks last week. Interesting sculptures seem to keep cropping up by canals. More evidence of them being a linear park rather than just a waterway.

Speaking of the Hatton locks, I rather liked their paddles gears which stick up at a jaunty angle and have a clever little horseshoe shaped device on a chain which presumably stops the paddle from dropping under its own weight once wound up.
I've not seen them anywhere else, although for all I know they might be common enough on canals I haven't visited yet.

1 comment:

Adam said...

The paddle gear is like that all along the section of the GU which was modernised in the 1930s, between Calcutt and Knowle. I'm not aware of there being any similar gear anywhere else. They look nice, but each paddle takes 21turns to lift, so if you're doing the whole lot the novelty quickly wears off!