Huge Gadgets: Boat Lift

Posted By Jake Easton on November 24, 2009

Boat Lift in Scottsland

Resembling a double-headed ax, the Falkirk Wheel is an enormous rotating boat lift located in Scotland. It was built to transfer canal boats from the Union Canal to the Forth and Clyde Canal. The wheel measures 110 feet in diameter and consists of two arms spaced 80 feet apart.

The coolest part is that it’s self-balancing: The end of each arm holds a water-filled caisson (a water-tight bucket, basically) with a capacity of 96,000 gallons.