The life and times of the World War I Birmingham Canal Navigations Company reinforced concrete boats

摘要

This article briefly reviews the history of concrete boats up to 1925 and illustrates the apparent 'progress' with the design, building and possible roles for the two canal boats built for the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company (BCN) in 1917-18. Although the discovery and use of concrete for hydraulic engineering is attributed to Roman engineers, it was subsequently lost but re-discovered by John Smeaton (1724-1792). The first modern concrete boat was built by Joseph Lambot (1814-1887) in 1849 and remained functional for at least 70 years (Fig 1). The boat was based on a network of iron wires, 11.8ft. by 4.4ft with a surface plastered concrete hull, 1.3 to 1.5ins thick. This and similar boats should be referred to as ferro-cement or ferroconcrete. This is further illustrated by a German concrete motor launch but the detailed composition, particularly any aggregate component, is not stated (Fig 2). It should be noted that this approach stimulated the interest of Francois Hennebique (1842-1921) who pioneered the introduction and development of a reinforced concrete in a variety of areas. One of the earliest concrete vessels in England was the successful concrete pontoon (Fig 3) built in 1912 by the Yorkshire Hennebique Construction Co of Leeds to the design of L G Mouchel & Partners for the collection of dredgings on the Manchester Ship Canal. Up to and including 1916, approximately 150 concrete vessels had been constructed. However, the majority had a capacity of 500-1,000 tons and were designed for major inland and costal waterways including the Panama and Manchester Ship canals and not for narrow inland canals.