Floating caissons had been previously used at the entrances to graving docks, and in similar situations; indeed at Bristol, a caisson had long been employed at Prince's Street Bridge, to separate one part of the Floating Harbour from the other. The buoyant gates of the Bristol Docks differ essentially from these vessels, inasmuch as, instead of requiring to be floated into their places, they turn on a hinge, and do not rise or fall vertically.

The gates are provided with wheels, but only a small part of the weight rests on them, as the gates are rendered buoyant by large air-chambers, formed in the lower part of them.

The upper and lower gates are alike in construction and dimensions, so that it is only necessary to describe one of them. (See woodcut, fig.

18.)

The extreme length of the gate is 58 feet, and the extreme height 29 feet. In the middle it is about 10 feet wide, the width diminishing to 3 feet at the top. In plan it is curved to resist the pressure of the water. The gate when closed is not at right angles to the direction of the length of the lock, but is at an angle of about 12. The length is thus scarcely increased, while the travel in being opened and shut is much reduced. The top is at the level of the water in the Floating Harbour; so that, when the tide falls, the water in the c.u.mberland Basin may be retained at the same height as in the Float.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 18. Bristol Dock Gate.

_Elevation._ _Section A. B._ _Section C. D._

_Plan._

_Scale of feet._]

The air-chamber is formed by two water-tight decks of wrought-iron plating, one at the level of half-tide, the other a short distance above the bottom of the gate. Above the deck forming the top of the air-chamber, the water, as the tide rises, flows freely into the interior of the gate, through openings in the face next the dock, so that when the water is level with the top of the gate, the part above the air-chamber is full of water, which flows out again if the level of the water falls.

In ordinary working the gate only needs to be opened or shut when the water is above the level of half-tide, and therefore at these times the whole of the air-chamber is immersed. To whatever height the water rises above this level, the buoyancy remains almost the same, the only change being caused by the displacement of the iron of the upper part. This displacement, when the water is level with the top of the gate, amounts to about six tons.

The size of the air-chamber is so arranged that when the water is level with the top of the gate it is just afloat; and at half-tide, when the water is at the level of the top of the air-chamber, there is a weight of about six tons on the wheels.[179]

The gate is provided with a sluice, by which water may be admitted into the air-chamber, or allowed to escape when the water outside is at a lower level; there is also a pump, by which leakage water may be extracted. The volume of the air-chamber may thus be altered at will, and the buoyancy may be modified so as to counteract the effect of the weight of any mud which may be deposited upon the decks of the gate.

There are in each gate two very large double sluices, which are used for working the lock, and for lowering the water in the c.u.mberland Basin to meet the tide. They are also used for scouring away the mud. The shutting pieces of the gates, which bear against the granite masonry and form a water-tight joint, were made of Honduras mahogany, a very durable wood for the purpose. The timber is bedded in creosoted felt and bolted to the gates; and the pieces are still sound, after the lapse of more than twenty years.

Underneath the gate are two wheels, slightly conical, 3 feet diameter and 1 foot wide, which travel on level cast-iron rails let into the masonry of the gate floor. There is no heel-post such as is usual in dock gates, but the gate is hinged to the masonry by wrought-iron collars and a wrought-iron pin about 8 inches diameter, which is pa.s.sed through them. Any portion of the weight of the gate which is not supported by the flotation of the air-chamber is borne entirely by the wheels, the arrangement at the hinge being merely for the purpose of retaining the gate in its position and guiding it in opening or shutting. The gate is moved by chains, which are attached to the barrels of powerful crabs, and conveyed through pa.s.sages formed in the masonry; at the lower ends of these are chain rollers or broad sheaves, round which the chains pa.s.s. The sheaves are fluted on the circ.u.mference, to ensure their turning readily. When the gates are nearly afloat, they can be moved with great ease; but at the time of their construction it was considered essential to provide machinery sufficiently powerful to open and close them at low water, when the whole weight of each gate, nearly one hundred tons, rests on the wheels. The crabs and chains were therefore made much stronger, and were more difficult to move, than if they had been merely designed to work the gate under ordinary conditions.

The gates were constructed in Bristol at the Great Western Steamship Works in 1847. After the lower gate had been tested and proved to be water-tight, it was launched, and floated with the front surface nearly level. The positions it would a.s.sume under different conditions had been calculated beforehand. Before it was fixed, the gate was made to float nearly upright by the admission of water; it was then towed to its place, and brought into correct position. The hinge-pin was dropped through the collars, and by admitting water into it, the gate was sunk, so that it rested upon its wheels. This operation had to be performed at high water, which only lasted for a short time.

In fixing the upper gate, the water was kept up to the proper level by the lower gate, and therefore there was no need to do the work quickly.

_Plymouth Great Western Docks._

As it was considered probable that, on the completion of railway communication, mail packets and other large ocean steamers might make Plymouth their port of departure, a company was formed in 1846 for the construction of a dock in Mill-bay, a large inlet in Plymouth Sound near the entrance to the Hamoaze.

The bay was already protected from the prevailing winds by a pier at its eastern side constructed by Mr. Rendel.

It was decided to form a wet dock and graving dock at the inner end of the bay, and to make quay walls along the side of the outer part, to join the existing pier. A floating pier for large vessels afterwards became part of the scheme. In 1847 preliminary trials were made as to the best means of excavating in deep water the limestone rock of which part of the bottom of the bay consisted; some quay walls were also constructed and made use of by the shipping.

At the end of 1851 a contract was entered into for the execution of the whole of the works remaining to be completed; the most important of these were the entrance, the graving dock, and the completion of the floating basin.

The progress of the undertaking was much facilitated by Mr. Brunel giving his sanction to the proposal of the contractors to form a stone and earth embankment across the mouth of the bay, instead of employing the usual timber coffer-dams. This embankment, which completely answered its purpose, was finished by the middle of 1853.

The works now proceeded steadily until they were completed, and at the end of the year 1856 the dock was opened.

The middle of the embankment was cut through, and an entrance channel dredged to a level of 8 feet below low water. The remainder of the dam, being partly protected by masonry walling, was used as a quay, and served for the protection of the outer basin.

Mr. Brunel had prepared the foundation, and had intended to build a pier to shelter the entrance gate from the sea, and to a.s.sist in pointing long vessels. The want of this shelter was felt in the gale of October 1857, when the gates were thrown down. In order to avoid any future casualty, storm gates, or framed struts reaching down to low water level, were placed immediately behind the entrance gates, so as to support them against heavy seas.

The dock, which is of oblong shape, has an area of 13 acres, and a length of quay wall of 3,490 feet. The greater part has a depth of 22 feet below high water at spring tides, or 16 feet at neap tides; the remainder is 4 feet deeper, or the same depth as the channel in the outer basin.

The walls are 8 feet thick at bottom, and 3 feet at top, and are built to a curved batter. They reach generally to a depth of 5 feet below low water, and rest on concrete 12 feet thick, carried down until a rock foundation is reached, which in some places is as much as 40 feet below the bottom of the dock.

To accommodate the larger paddlewheel steamers, the entrances to the basin and graving dock were made 80 feet in width.

The dock is entered through a short pa.s.sage, the sill being 13 feet below low water. The masonry of this entrance has curved battering sides, with a segmental invert.

The entrance is closed by a pair of wrought-iron buoyant gates, which meet at an angle of 127. Each gate is 48 feet long, and weighs seventy-five tons, the breadth being 8 feet in the middle, curving to 2 feet at the ends. There are six horizontal decks and four vertical bulkheads. The depth at the heel-post is 22 feet, and at the meeting-post 35 feet (see woodcut, fig. 19).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 19. Plymouth Dock Gates.

_Elevation._ _Section A. B._

_Plan._

_Scale of feet._]

In each gate is an air-chamber, the top of which is at half-tide level; and its volume is such that when the gate is wholly immersed there is a small downward pressure.[180]

Under each gate, near the meeting-post, is placed a wheel, which supports part of the weight. This wheel is so arranged that it can be easily removed for repair. The heel-posts are of cast iron, planed and ground in place against the polished surface of the granite hollow quoins so as to form a water-tight joint.

There are large scouring culverts behind the side walls of the entrance; but for the purpose of regulating the level of the water in the dock, and of discharging a large volume of water readily, without having to overcome the friction of ordinary sluice valve faces, each gate is furnished with a cylindrical valve, of the following description:--

From an opening in the side of the gate next the dock there is a large curved pipe or sluice-way, which terminates inside the body of the gate, with a circular horizontal orifice about 5 feet in diameter. The opening is covered by a short length of vertical pipe of the same diameter, reaching above high water, the bottom edge making a water-tight joint.

This pipe can be raised or lowered by a screw at the top of the gate.

When raised a short distance it allows the water from the dock to flow out between the bottom of the movable pipe and the orifice of the sluice-way into an isolated compartment of the gate, and to escape by an opening provided in the outer face. The movable pipe is guided by rollers, and from the construction the pressures on it are balanced.

The entrance to the graving dock, 80 feet wide, is closed by a pair of gates of the same dimensions and construction as those of the entrance.

This dock is 380 feet long, 92 feet wide, and has a depth of 28 feet over the sill.

The floating pier was erected in Mill-bay in 1852, to accommodate the steam-shipping trade. It consists of a pontoon with a bridge leading to it.

The pontoon is a large wrought-iron vessel of nearly rectangular cross-section, 300 feet long, with 40 feet breadth of beam, and a depth of 17 feet. It is loaded so as to draw 10 feet of water, and is capable of storing 4,000 tons of coals. To connect the pontoon with the sh.o.r.e there is an iron bridge, working upon hinges, in two spans of 125 feet each. The connection between the two spans was supported on a timber pier, and was made so as to be movable vertically, and capable of being adjusted by a crab and counterbalance weights. By means of this arrangement a uniform gradient over the whole length of the bridge could be obtained at any time of tide, for the convenience of heavily laden carts pa.s.sing to and from the pontoon.

_Briton Ferry Docks._

In 1846 a company was formed to establish docks in Baglan Bay at Briton Ferry, near the mouth of the river Neath; but nothing was done until 1851, when the necessary powers were obtained under an Act of Parliament. From the vicinity of the proposed docks to the South Wales and Vale of Neath Railways, a large amount of trade was antic.i.p.ated; and in 1853 an Act was obtained for the South Wales Mineral Railway, which was intended to terminate at the docks, and was expected to bring a large traffic in coals and other minerals.

The dock works were begun soon afterwards, but the earthwork was not completed, nor the construction of the gate commenced, until the year 1858. The docks were completed, after Mr. Brunel's death, by Mr.

Brereton, and were formally opened on August 22, 1861.