Design Characteristics of Lock Systems in the United States: A Symposium: Foreword

The lifting or lowering of vessels vertically from one water level to another by locks is not new. The earliest boatmen resorted to unloading, carrying, and reloading to overcome distance and differences in elevation between bodies of water. Necessity brought about the development of inclined planes and the use of waves resulting from controlled releases of stored water. The forerunners of the modern lock, possibly in the year 1000, consisted of single gates installed in dikes along the North Sea, where the fluctuations of tide were employed to lift and lower shipping. Records indicate that actual "chamber locks" were invented about the same time in Germany, Holland, and · Italy, perhaps near the end of the fifteenth century.