A pound lock is type of lock that is used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers. A pound lock has a chamber (the pound) with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound. In contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock.
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Indirect evidence suggests that pound locks are likely to have been used in antiquity by the Egyptians, the Ptolemaic Greeks and (at least in the Mediterranean area) the Romans.[1]
Pound locks were used in ancient China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), having been pioneered by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyo in 984[2 ]. They are mentioned by the Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his book Dream Pool Essays (published in 1088),[3 ] and fully described in the Chinese historical text Song Shi (compiled in 1345).[4 ]
In medieval Europe a type of pound lock was first built in 1373 at Vreeswijk, the Netherlands.[5 ] This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin, yet the true pound lock (i.e. one for a small basin) came in 1396 with the one built at Damme near Bruges.[5 ] A famous civil engineer of pound locks in Europe was the Italian Bertola da Novate (c. 1410-1475), who constructed 18 of them on the Naviglio di Bereguardo (part of the Milan canal system sponsored by Francesco Sforza) between the years 1452 and 1458.[6 ]
   | Locks on the River Thames - River Thames and boaty things |
| | Locks in Governolo near Mantua (ITALY) - ascensore ad acqua - NAVI ANDES crociere fluviali |
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