But obviously the boats transferable by such machinery must be small and lightly loaded; and the modern canal system, with long, heavy boats and large cargoes, was first made possible by the invention of the lock. This doubtless developed out of putting dams close together with gates in them; but neither inventor nor even country of first use is certain. It has been claimed for two brothers, engineers at Viterbo in Italy, in 1481; also for Leonardo da Vinci, the universal genius; and again for Holland a century earlier. The one certain fact is, that in the latter part of the 15th century they were in use in both countries, and spread rapidly through Europe. The first country to under take on a large and systematic scale the con nection of its leading systems by canals was France, in the 17th century. The Briere Canal, connecting the Seine and Loire, was be in 1605 under Henry IV, and completed 1642 under Louis XIII. The Orleans Canal, uniting the same basins by the Loing, was completed 1675, under Louis XIV. The greatest of all, the Languedoc Canal, to connect the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean, was finished 1681. It is 148 miles long, 6% feet deep, with a summit level of 600 feet; has about 119 locks and 50 aqueducts, and floats barges of 100 tons. France in 1879 passed a law making all its canals uniform at 6% feet deep, with locks 12654 feet long by 17 wide. England was much later in taking up the system on a large scale, but when it did so, carried out a remarkable one, with great feats of engineering. The fathers of it were Francis, Duke of Bridgewater and his famous engineer, James Brindley; and the beginning was the charter for the Bridge water Canal in 1759. The names of Watt, Tel ford, Nimmo, Rennie and other noted engineers are associated with it. The last inland canal in Great Britain was built in 1834. Among the leading ones are the GrandJunction, 1213 miles; Leeds & Liverpool, 128; Trent & Mer sey, 93; Kennet & Avon, 57. The great Irish canals are the Grand Canal, from Dublin to Bal linasloe, 164 miles, uniting the Irish Sea to the Shannon; and the Royal Canal nearly parallel to it for the same traffic, from Dublin to Torinansburg, west of Longford. The great canals of Scotland are the Caledonian and the Forth & Clyde, described under SHIP CANALS. Early in the 18th century Peter the Great con structed a great system of canals and canalized rivers, 1,434 miles long, to connect Saint Peters burg with the Caspian. The Danish Canal, 100 miles long, from the North Sea to the Baltic, was finished in 1785. The Gotha Canal, 280 miles long, connecting Stockholm with Gothen burg across Sweden, was planned 1716, but opened the first part 1810, the whole 1832. In 1836-46 Louis of Bavaria revived Charle magne's old plan, connecting the Main (and so the Rhine) with the Danube, by a canal 108 miles long, 650 feet above the Main, and 270 feet above the Danube.
United States Boat first canal in this country was built in 1793, around the falls of the Connecticut River at South Hadley Falls, Mass.; the engineer was Benjamin Pres cott of Northampton, afterward superintendent of the Springfield armory. The lift was not by locks, but by inclined planes, the boats being run into a movable caisson, filled with water and hauled up by cables operated by water power; locks were introduced later. In 1796 a canal was completed around Turner's Falls farther north in the same river, at Montague. •The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River* were incorporated 1792, and opened their canal around the falls at Lowell to the mouth of the Concord, one and a half miles long and with four locks, in 1797; it was for the lumbering business, rafts, masts, etc. But
the first general canal for passengers and mer chandise opened in the United States was the Middlesex, a rival to the last, incorporated 1793, and completed 1804 at a cost of $700,000; it ran to Charlestown, 31 miles, was 24 feet wide and 4 feet deep, and fed by the Concord. A packet boat, the Governor Sullivan, plied regu larly between Boston and Lowell, taking nearly a day. The first boat voyage to Concord, N. H., was made in 1814, and a steamer began passages in 1819. The canal was disused 1851. But much broader projects had been set on foot about the time of these local ventures; and several of the greatest afterward carried out, as well as some which have been chimeras rather from political developments than from any inherent impracticability, were broached even before the Revolution. Washington was deeply interested in canal schemes all through his life, and favored canals to connect all the great Ameri can water systems. The Potomac and Ohio, the James and Ohio, and the Mohawk Valley and Great Lakes connections, were all examined by him. The last named he looked over during the Revolution. In 1792 the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was formed, and by 1797 had finished six miles of canals around the rapids at Little Falls, making a navigable way for 15-ton barges to Lake Ontario. Pennsyl vania built several small canals in the two decades from 1790 to 1810, but they had little success. In 1784 Maryland and Virginia jointly granted a charter for a canal from Georgetown on the Potomac to the Alleghanies, under which up to 1822, when it was abandoned, some three quarters of a million dollars were spent in excavations, dams and locks.
Chesapeake and The fortunes of this system have shown how difficult it is to fore cast business developments. As designed by Washington, it was to connect the Chesapeake and ocean navigation, by way of the Potomac, with that of the Ohio, by portages and high roads from its terminus, Cumberland, at the foot of the Alleghanies; as a fact, its use has been mainly from the accidental fact that Cumberland is near the Pennsylvania coal fields. The for tunes of the first company have been described.
In 1823 commissioners appointed toy Maryland and Virginia reported in favor of a new route in place of attempting to complete the old one; in 1824 the national system of internal improve ments was inaugurated by act of 30 April, and a board of engineers in October 1826 reported on a canal from Georgetown to Pittsburgh. As the cost was over $22,000,000, it was considered prohibitory then; and in 1829 the °eastern division' to Cumberland was authorized, by national, State, municipal and private stock subscriptions. But the work had been inaugu rated on 4 July 1828 by President J. Q. Adams, who struck the first spade; and it was fully opened in 1850. It is 184 miles long and 6 feet deep, 60 feet wide from Georgetown to Har per s Ferry, and 70 on an average frbm thence to Cumberland. It is fed from the Potomac by seven darns. The aqueduct at Georgetown over the Potomac was a very considerable engineer ing feat for its time; it rests on 12 masonry piers constructed by coffer-dams on rock 28 to 40 feet below the surface. At Paw Paw Bend, 27 miles east of Cumberland, the canal saves six miles by a 'cut-off and tunnel through the mountain, 3,118 feet long. The summit level is 6133 feet above tidewater; the rise is accom plished by 74 locks from 6 to 10 feet lift. The whole work had cost over $9,500,000 when opened, and its total capitalized outlay had been over $15,000,000 when the bondholders foreclosed in 1890.