READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.

The Falkirk Wheel

A unique engineering achievement

The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the world's first and only rotating boat lift. Opened in
2002, it is central to the ambitious £84.5m Millennium Link project to restore navigability
across Scotland by reconnecting the historic waterways of the Forth & Clyde and Union
Canals.

The major challenge of the project lay in the fact that the Forth & Clyde Canal is situated
35 metres below the level of the Union Canal. Historically, the two canals had been
joined near the town of Falkirk by a sequence of 11 locks – enclosed sections of canal in
which the water level could be raised or lowered – that stepped down across a distance
of 1.5 km. This had been dismantled in 1933, thereby breaking the link. When the
project was launched in 1994, the British Waterways authority were keen to create a
dramatic twenty-first-century landmark which would not only be a fitting commemoration
of the Millennium, but also a lasting symbol of the economic regeneration of the region.

Numerous ideas were submitted for the project, including concepts ranging from rolling
eggs to tilting tanks, from giant see-saws to overhead monorails. The eventual winner
was a plan for the huge rotating steel boat lift which was to become The Falkirk Wheel.
The unique shape of the structure is claimed to have been inspired by various sources,
both manmade and natural, most notably a Celtic double-headed axe, but also the vast
turning propeller of a ship, the ribcage of a whale, or the spine of a fish.

The various parts of The Falkirk Wheel were all constructed and assembled, like one
giant toy building set, at Butterley Engineering's Steelworks in Derbyshire, some 400 km
from Falkirk. A team there carefully assembled the 1,200 tonnes of steel, painstakingly
fitting the pieces together to an accuracy of just 10 mm to ensure a perfect final fit. In the
summer of 2001, the structure was then dismantled and transported on 35 lorries to
Falkirk before all being bolted back together again on the ground and finally lifted into
position in five large sections by crane. The Wheel would need to withstand immense
and constantly changing stresses as it rotated, so to make the structure more robust, the
steel sections were bolted rather than welded together. Over 45,000 bolt holes were
matched with their bolts, and each bolt was hand-tightened.

The Wheel consists of two sets of opposing axe-shaped arms, attached about 25 metres
apart to a fixed central spine. Two diametrically opposed water-filled 'gondolas', each
with a capacity of 360,000 litres, are fitted between the ends of the arms. These
gondolas always weigh the same, whether or not they are carrying boats. This is
because, according to Archimedes' principle of displacement, floating objects displace
their own weight in water. So when a boat enters a gondola, the amount of water leaving
the gondola weighs exactly the same as the boat. This keeps the Wheel balanced and
so, despite its enormous mass, it rotates through 180º in five and a half minutes while
using very little power. It takes just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (5.4 MJ) of energy to rotate the
Wheel – roughly the same as boiling eight small domestic kettles of water.

Boats needing to be lifted up enter the canal basin at the level of the Forth & Clyde
Canal and then enter the lower gondola of the Wheel. Two hydraulic steel gates are
raised so as to seal the gondola off from the water in the canal basin. The water
between the gates is then pumped out. A hydraulic clamp, which prevents the arms of
the Wheel from moving while the gondola is docked, is removed, allowing the Wheel to
turn. In the central machine room, an array of ten hydraulic motors then begins to rotate
the central axle. The axle connects to the outer arms of the Wheel, which begin to rotate
at a speed of 1/8 of a revolution per minute. As the wheel rotates, the gondolas are kept
in the upright position by a simple gearing system. Two eight-metre-wide cogs orbit a
fixed inner cog of the same width, connected by two smaller cogs travelling in the
opposite direction to the outer cogs – so ensuring that the gondolas always remain level.
When the gondola reaches the top, the boat passes straight onto the aqueduct situated
24 metres above the canal basin.

The remaining 11 metres of lift needed to reach the Union Canal is achieved by means
of a pair of locks. The Wheel could not be constructed to elevate boats over the full 35-
metre difference between the two canals, owing to the presence of the historically
important Antonine Wall, which was built by the Romans in the second century AD.
Boats travel under this wall via a tunnel, then through the locks, and finally onto the
Union Canal.
Questions 20–26

Label the diagram below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answer in boxes 20–26 on your answer sheet.

How a boat is lifted on the Falkirk Wheel

axle
Hydraulic motors drive 22 ……………………..
Locks
26 ……………..
raise boat 11 m
to level of Union
Canal Boat is raised,
floating in one of
Boat travels Wheels two
through tunnel gondolas
beneath Roman
wall
25 ……………..

Boat reaches top Wheel, then moves cogs