View allAll Photos Tagged Efficiency"
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently I was also able to experience a test drive in the Vision EQXX ultra EV. Engineered in just 18 months and representing the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built, this experimental unit acts as a barometer for production EQ models, which may eventually inherit deviations from its technology, energy storage capabilities, and driving range. The development intention of the vehicle was to produce a battery with 100 kW capacity, lightweight construction, increased aero, and extreme efficiency. The result is an EV that achieves an extensive range of more than 745 miles on a single charge.
In pursuing heightened human resource productivity, we often mistake efficient output for genuine progress, failing to recognise the cognitive cost that diminishes human flourishing and deep understanding from which true innovation and lasting value arise.
Mercedes E250 Blue Efficiency CDi (W212) (2009-on) Engine 2143cc S4 CDi
Registration Number FL 10 JVE
MERCEDES SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623671722255...
Designed by Thomas Stopka (2005)
Michael Frei (2011) the Mecedes W212 E Class was introduced atb the 2009 North American International Auto Show. going on sale in Europe in 2010. The new E-Class features several new safety technologies including driver drowsiness detection, lane departure warning, and traffic sign recognition. It also includes features that improve performance, efficiency, and comfort, such as "Direct Control" adaptive suspension, active seats (which change shape to support the passengers in corners), and movable radiator louvers which improve the vehicle's aerodynamics. Standard Mercedes-Benz safety and convenience features, such as the Electronic Stability Program (ESP), airbags, and automatic climate control, are included as well.
The E250 CDi model is powered by a 2143cc S4 CDi engine of 201bhp.
Shot at Ferrari racing Days, Silverstone 16:09:2012 Ref: 92-265
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently I was also able to experience a test drive in the Vision EQXX ultra EV. Engineered in just 18 months and representing the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built, this experimental unit acts as a barometer for production EQ models, which may eventually inherit deviations from its technology, energy storage capabilities, and driving range. The development intention of the vehicle was to produce a battery with 100 kW capacity, lightweight construction, increased aero, and extreme efficiency. The result is an EV that achieves an extensive range of more than 745 miles on a single charge.
Hear the atlantic surf from your private balcony in the oceanside efficiency with 2 queen beds and sleeper sofa.
Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI T Blue Efficiency Avantgarde on the day of delivery at Mercedes-Benz in Frankfurt (with flashlight).
Energy efficiency rating for residential and public buildings which is based on the Energy Efficiency Building Code “Thermal protection of buildings” developed by the Project in 2011. It also provides info on heat consumption for heating and ventilation of buildings during the heating period.
View a bigger version of this infographic.
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
Arizona Daily Star Article-From ground up, new home is model of energy efficiency....By Dan Sorenson Arizona Daily Star
At first glance, there's nothing about this new 2,000-square-foot house in Civano, other than a rooftop solar panel, to suggest it's unusual. But an occupant would get the picture, in vivid green, when the laughable utility bills arrived.
The ultra-energy-efficient home uses state-of-the-art materials and techniques to cut energy consumption to one-fifth that of a new home built to current building codes, according to Richard Barna, director of building sciences and green building for Pepper Viner Homes.
Known as the Pepper Viner/BASF High-Performance Home, it is a collaboration between the local home builder and BASF, an international chemical and building materials firm. It combines state-of-the-art insulation, solar water and space heating, building materials that don't give off noxious gases, a vapor barrier under the slab, recycled tile, and graywater and rainwater conservation systems.
The house on Tucson's southeast side will be open for a public tour at Civano North Ridge today. But many of the features are not readily apparent.
The house's SIPS (Structural Insulated Panels) modular-wall construction system virtually eliminates leaks and attains a near R-30 insulation rating, according to Barna. The modular system uses large sections of polystyrene sandwiched between sustainable wafer board for exterior walls. Window and door openings are pre-cut at the factory to builder specifications. But Barna said the SIPS walls look like ordinary 2x6 stud walls.
One of the two new types of BASF foam insulation used in the demonstration house may soon offer a solution for old desert houses with inadequate roof insulation, Barna said.
The spray-on insulation has a hard surface — hard enough to walk upon — and a soft open-cell interior. So it could be sprayed on top of an old flat roof, instead of removing the old roof and installing four or six inches of new insulation between the joists or rafters. It would save the cost of removing and replacing the old roof, and provide better insulation, Barna said. It is not yet available locally.
The house also uses all nontoxic materials — adhesives, sealants and wood composites for cabinets — and will meet the new federal interior air standards.
The floors are all polished and dyed concrete. The concrete uses roughly twice the normal amount of fly ash, a recycled material used to replace cement in concrete.
Outside the house the landscaping uses a rainwater collection system hooked up to an automatic watering system that is tied into a weather network that bases watering times and amounts on weather conditions. Trees are watered using an active graywater system that pumps water from drains and sinks to a network of pipes two to three feet underground, to deep-water trees. The graywater isn't collected and held, eliminating storage problems, but is used as soon as it is detected in the system, Barna said.
Bill Viner of Pepper Viner said some of the technologies and building materials are already in use, and that he expects more will be in demand, and supplied, when the housing industry picks up after the recession.
"Not only will there be greater demand, but I think the builders will do it because it's the right thing to do," Viner said.
He wouldn't estimate the house's value, or what it would cost to reproduce it, but he said a similar floor plan house in Civano North Ridge development sells for $299,900.
And he said other houses in the development already use some of the methods to meet a standard based on heating and cooling costs-savings of at least 50 percent of that of a conventional home.
Viner said the demonstration home is under consideration for the top (platinum) rating in the national green building certification system, LEED. And he said it was already awarded the Pima County certification system's top (emerald) rating.
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
Territorial Force Efficiency Medal .Silver oval medal showing uncrowned profile of King George V and inscribed “GEORGIVS V BRITT OMN: REX: ET: IND: IMP.” This was awarded for a minimum of 12 years' service in the Territorial Force with war service counting double. Recipient’s service number, rank, name and regiment are engraved on rim of medal.
Donor from Blackridge, West Lothian.
West Lothian Museums. http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/tourism/museumsgalleries/ums/information
Copyright: West Lothian Council Museums Service.
If you would like more information about this object, please contact: museums@westlothian.gov.uk, quoting WLCMS2007.004.006 .
Comparing the latest BMW 1 Series with my own Clio and friends Volvo to see who rates highest in efficiency.
For the full article visit bit.ly/190vov
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
Energy Efficiency projects at a B&B in Langley: www.princessbb.com The owner has added insulation around his refrigerators to improve efficiency. This is one of many efficiency upgrades that along with a solar photovoltaic installation by VREC (www.vrec.ca) has made this B&B building close to net-zero.
Biological Inactivation Efficiency of HVAC In-Duct Ultraviolet Light Devices
This document does not constitute nor should be construed as an EPA endorsement of any particular product, service, or technology.
One potential method of terrorism is the intentional introduction of biological warfare agents (BWAs) into the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems of target structures in order to distribute pathogens. Introducing BWAs into an HVAC system could harm many people, so there is an urgent need to identify and test devices that can destroy BWAs as they move through an air handling system. One technology that may meet this need uses ultraviolet (UV) lights deployed inside the building’s air ducts. Short-wave ultraviolet radiation in the “C” band (UVC or UVGI — germicidal irradiation) has been used for many years to inactivate microorganisms. Early research in this area focused on the controlling infectious pathogens in medical facilities. UVC effectively killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, and other bacteria including mycoplasma, as well as viruses and fungi.
In testing and evaluating homeland security related technologies, EPA provides unbiased, third-party performance information that can supplement vendor-generated information. This information helps decision makers purchase and apply the tested technologies. EPA conducts its evaluations under rigorous quality assurance protocols to generate high-quality data.
Test Design
The UVC devices are designed to be mounted inside an HVAC system to inactivate bioaerosols as they migrate through the air handling system. The devices were tested separately in a laboratory-based test duct with advanced aerosol and microbiological generation and measurement equipment. Testing was conducted using three microorganisms, two bacteria (one spore-forming and one vegetative) and one virus, whose structural characteristics and susceptibility to UVC inactivation make them reasonable surrogates for BWAs. Each device was tested three times, once for each test microorganism. Test microorganisms were generated and introduced into the test duct upstream from the installed device. As air flowed through the duct, the bioaerosols passed through the device and were exposed to UVC.
Each device's ability to destroy the bioaerosols is reported as airborne inactivation efficiency. The greater this percentage, the more effective the device. To determine efficiency, bioaerosol samples were taken from the duct upstream and downstream from the device. These samples were cultured, and the bacterial colony forming units (CFUs) or viral plaque forming units (PFUs) were counted. Device efficiency was then calculated as a percentage from the ratio of the upstream to the downstream counts.
Performance and Results
All UVC devices were ≥99 percent efficient at inactivating the vegetative bacteria. Three UVC devices were ≥93 percent effective for all three microorganisms. Five devices had ≤46 percent efficiency for inactivation of the spore form of the bacteria and two had ≤46 percent efficiency in destroying the virus.
UVC Device
Lamps
Measured Dosagea
(µW-s/cm2)
Power (w)
Airborne Inactivation Efficiencies(%)
Spore form of bacteria
(B.atrophaeus)
Vegetative form of bacteria (S.marcescens)
Virus
(MS2 bacteriophage)
Abracair, LLC12447
(376–550)6480-67206.999.859
American Ultraviolet Corporation ACP-24/HO-44582
(490–716)1699≥99.96b75
Atlantic Ultraviolet Corporation AeroLogic Model AD24-44295
(249–363)940≥99.8b46
Dust Free Bio-Fighter 4Xtreme Model 211247
(208–304)5349939
Lumalier ADPL-60-883180 (2678 –3914)56840≥99.98b82
Novatron, Inc. BioProtector BP114i6>42,342 (35,656– 52,113)748≥99.9b≥99.94b≥99.9b
Sanuvox Technologies Inc. UV Bio-Wall 50 Outwardly Projecting Air Purifier516,439
(13,843–
20,223)94493≥99.97b99
Steril-Aire, Inc. Model SE1 VO with GTS 24 Emitter619,826 (16,696– 24,401)42196≥99.96b99
UltraViolet Devices, Inc. Altru-V V-Flex127,651 (6,443 – 9,416)75571≥99.98b98
a: The systems were run at 0.93 m3/sec (1970 CFM), except the Novatron device was run at 0.14 m3/sec (300 CFM).
b: These values are based on the upper 95% confidence limit for the mean downstream count of the test organism. There were no downstream counts measured.
Other attributes besides airborne inactivation efficiency were assessed. These included dosage measurements, power consumption, single measurement intensity, pressure drop across the device, and air temperature rise through the device.
Energy Efficiency Potential in Georgia
www.seealliance.org/se_efficiency_study/georgia_efficienc...
lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/2012/07/will-electrici...
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently I was also able to experience a test drive in the Vision EQXX ultra EV. Engineered in just 18 months and representing the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built, this experimental unit acts as a barometer for production EQ models, which may eventually inherit deviations from its technology, energy storage capabilities, and driving range. The development intention of the vehicle was to produce a battery with 100 kW capacity, lightweight construction, increased aero, and extreme efficiency. The result is an EV that achieves an extensive range of more than 745 miles on a single charge.
28.02.2013...Launch of Second National Energy Efficiency Action Plan at the Rotunda Hospital,Parnell Square,Dublin...Pic shows Energy Minister, Pat Rabbitte T.D., pictured with Dr. Brian Motherway, CEO of the SEAI and Master of the Rotunda, Dr Sam Coulter-Smith As he formally announced a €70m Energy Efficiency Fund that will dramatically improve energy efficiency savings in public and commercial buildings right across the country. As a key deliverable of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs, the projections are that the Fund may deliver up to 675 jobs, direct and indirect, for every €10 million expenditure. The Fund is also a cornerstone of Ireland’s second National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and it will provide finance to energy efficiency projects across all sectors of the economy. The Minister also issued a call for Exemplar Projects from the public and private sectors; selected projects will receive technical assistance from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).Pic Maxwells Dublin No Fee Pic
E-commerce allows people to make transactions quickly and efficiently. While communities help users maintain friendships with little effort. The convenience of both these genres help put people at ease and plays a significant role in achieving peace
Minnesota Senator Al Franken smiles as he thinks about energy efficiency.
Nearly 70 people joined Senator Al Franken and CERTs at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington on April 2, 2012 to discuss financing tools and opportunities that are currently available to local governments and business leaders.
The Province will advance the goal of meeting the vast majority of BC’s new electricity demand through conservation by providing $100,000 to the Canadian Passive House Institute (CanPHI) West.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/03/province-funds-energy-effi...
Energy efficiency and lower heating bills and consumption of fuel or electricity in historic buildings can be achieved the old fashioned way with simple storm windows that are custom fit and properly fitted over older windows. This salvages original historic fabric and preserves the aesthetic look of early designs; it also conserves the energy and artisanal labor embodied in the crafting of the original windows. The Jay Heritage Center received 2 recent grants - one for $25,000 to fund capital improvements to the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House and another from Con Edison to create educational programs around the implementation of these measures - these are teachable moments about energy efficiency and adaptive reuse of historic structures.
Step 4: Milling the tenons.
Storm windows are a second layer of window. They reduce air movement in and out of the existing windows. They give you an extra barrier to keep out wind and cold in the winter. According to the US Department of Energy, storm windows can help better insulate a home and reduce heating loss by up to 50%.
Photo credit: Bruce MacDonald/Ashwood Restoration & JHC Archives
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
Follow and like us on:
Twitter @jayheritage
Facebook www.facebook.com/jayheritagecenter
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/jaycenter
YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UChWImnsJrBAi2Xzjn8vR54w
www.instagram.com/jayheritagecenter/
A National Historic Landmark since 1993
Member of the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County since 2004
Member of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area since 2009
On NY State's Path Through History (2013)
Energy efficiency and lower heating bills and consumption of fuel or electricity in historic buildings can be achieved the old fashioned way with simple storm windows that are custom fit and properly fitted over older windows. This salvages original historic fabric and preserves the aesthetic look of early designs; it also conserves the energy and artisanal labor embodied in the crafting of the original windows. The Jay Heritage Center received 2 recent grants - one for $25,000 to fund capital improvements to the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House and another from Con Edison to create educational programs around the implementation of these measures - these are teachable moments about energy efficiency and adaptive reuse of historic structures.
Step 1: The design and the execution is key. Bruce MacDonald of Ashwood Restoration has been working on the preservation of buildings at the Jay Property for almost 2 decades. His expertise and knowledge of historic details and materials is invaluable. Here he designs storm windows
Storm windows are a second layer of window. They reduce air movement in and out of the existing windows. They give you an extra barrier to keep out wind and cold in the winter. According to the US Department of Energy, storm windows can help better insulate a home and reduce heating loss by up to 50%.
Photo credit: Bruce MacDonald/Ashwood Restoration & JHC Archives
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
Follow and like us on:
Twitter @jayheritage
Facebook www.facebook.com/jayheritagecenter
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/jaycenter
YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UChWImnsJrBAi2Xzjn8vR54w
www.instagram.com/jayheritagecenter/
A National Historic Landmark since 1993
Member of the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County since 2004
Member of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area since 2009
On NY State's Path Through History (2013)
Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI T Blue Efficiency Avantgarde on the day of delivery at Mercedes-Benz in Frankfurt.
At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently I was also able to experience a test drive in the Vision EQXX ultra EV. Engineered in just 18 months and representing the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built, this experimental unit acts as a barometer for production EQ models, which may eventually inherit deviations from its technology, energy storage capabilities, and driving range. The development intention of the vehicle was to produce a battery with 100 kW capacity, lightweight construction, increased aero, and extreme efficiency. The result is an EV that achieves an extensive range of more than 745 miles on a single charge.
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
Arizona Daily Star Article-From ground up, new home is model of energy efficiency....By Dan Sorenson Arizona Daily Star
At first glance, there's nothing about this new 2,000-square-foot house in Civano, other than a rooftop solar panel, to suggest it's unusual. But an occupant would get the picture, in vivid green, when the laughable utility bills arrived.
The ultra-energy-efficient home uses state-of-the-art materials and techniques to cut energy consumption to one-fifth that of a new home built to current building codes, according to Richard Barna, director of building sciences and green building for Pepper Viner Homes.
Known as the Pepper Viner/BASF High-Performance Home, it is a collaboration between the local home builder and BASF, an international chemical and building materials firm. It combines state-of-the-art insulation, solar water and space heating, building materials that don't give off noxious gases, a vapor barrier under the slab, recycled tile, and graywater and rainwater conservation systems.
The house on Tucson's southeast side will be open for a public tour at Civano North Ridge today. But many of the features are not readily apparent.
The house's SIPS (Structural Insulated Panels) modular-wall construction system virtually eliminates leaks and attains a near R-30 insulation rating, according to Barna. The modular system uses large sections of polystyrene sandwiched between sustainable wafer board for exterior walls. Window and door openings are pre-cut at the factory to builder specifications. But Barna said the SIPS walls look like ordinary 2x6 stud walls.
One of the two new types of BASF foam insulation used in the demonstration house may soon offer a solution for old desert houses with inadequate roof insulation, Barna said.
The spray-on insulation has a hard surface — hard enough to walk upon — and a soft open-cell interior. So it could be sprayed on top of an old flat roof, instead of removing the old roof and installing four or six inches of new insulation between the joists or rafters. It would save the cost of removing and replacing the old roof, and provide better insulation, Barna said. It is not yet available locally.
The house also uses all nontoxic materials — adhesives, sealants and wood composites for cabinets — and will meet the new federal interior air standards.
The floors are all polished and dyed concrete. The concrete uses roughly twice the normal amount of fly ash, a recycled material used to replace cement in concrete.
Outside the house the landscaping uses a rainwater collection system hooked up to an automatic watering system that is tied into a weather network that bases watering times and amounts on weather conditions. Trees are watered using an active graywater system that pumps water from drains and sinks to a network of pipes two to three feet underground, to deep-water trees. The graywater isn't collected and held, eliminating storage problems, but is used as soon as it is detected in the system, Barna said.
Bill Viner of Pepper Viner said some of the technologies and building materials are already in use, and that he expects more will be in demand, and supplied, when the housing industry picks up after the recession.
"Not only will there be greater demand, but I think the builders will do it because it's the right thing to do," Viner said.
He wouldn't estimate the house's value, or what it would cost to reproduce it, but he said a similar floor plan house in Civano North Ridge development sells for $299,900.
And he said other houses in the development already use some of the methods to meet a standard based on heating and cooling costs-savings of at least 50 percent of that of a conventional home.
Viner said the demonstration home is under consideration for the top (platinum) rating in the national green building certification system, LEED. And he said it was already awarded the Pima County certification system's top (emerald) rating.
Neptune's Staircase (grid reference NN113769) is a staircase lock comprising eight locks on the Caledonian Canal. Built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822, it is the longest staircase lock in Britain. The system was originally hand-powered but has been converted to hydraulic operation.
Neptune’s Staircase at Banavie, near Fort William just north of Loch Linnhe, is kept by Scottish Canals. It is the longest staircase lock in Britain, lifting boats 64 feet (20 m). It consists of eight locks, each 180 feet (55 m) by 40 feet (12 m), and it takes boats about 90 minutes to pass through the system.
The current lock gates weigh 22 tons each, and require a team of at least three lock-keepers to operate the staircase. They usually operate on an "efficiency basis"; that is, they try either to fill each cut with ascending boats or with descending boats, or to allow for passing, i.e. a dropping craft to pass a rising craft on the same fill/empty cycle.
Prior to mechanisation, the locks were operated by capstans, each with four poles, which had to make seven full revolutions to open or close a gate. Each gate leaf had two capstans, one to open it and another to close it. There were 36 capstans on the flight, and 126 revolutions were required for a boat to travel up or down the complete flight. With the advent of hydraulic rams and push-button control, transit times through the flight have been reduced from just over half a day to 90 minutes. The base plinths of the original capstans can still be seen, although the capstans themselves have been removed.
The Caledonian Canal was conceived by the engineer Thomas Telford after the government asked him to look at measures which might stem emigration from the Highlands. He suggested that the construction of public works would provide employment, and would also help to develop industry, fishery and agriculture. An Act of Parliament obtained in July 1803 established a board of commissioners to oversee the work. Telford was appointed as principal engineer, with William Jessop as consulting engineer. There were two resident engineers; the one covering the southern section, including Neptune's Staircase, was John Telford, who was no relation to the principal engineer.
It was intended to build the locks 162 by 38 feet (49 by 12 m), with smaller locks beside them through which boats carrying[or is this the displacement?] up to 200 tons could pass, but after consideration of the size of 32-gun frigates and ships which traded with the Baltic, the size of the main locks was increased to 170 by 40 feet (52 by 12 m), and the smaller locks were omitted. It was decided to arrange the locks in clusters to reduce the cost of the project, and so Banavie was chosen as the site for eight locks. On the Forth and Clyde Canal, low level crossings were carried over the canal by bascule bridges, but Telford and Jessop rejected this arrangement for their canal, as they thought the risk of masts being damaged by them was too great. Consequently, cast iron swing bridges were used, and both the road and the railway at the foot of the flight cross bridges of this type.
To provide rubble-stone to build the locks, a quarry was opened at Corpach Moss. By June 1809, three of the locks had been completed, and although completion of the flight was expected in 1810, there was a shortage of labour, and only three more were finished. The final two were ready by the end of 1811. As built, the staircase locks were 180 feet (55 m) long, rather than the 170 feet (52 m) of the single locks. Construction of the rest of the canal dragged on, and it was not finally opened until October 1822. Traffic through the locks developed steadily, and in 1824 an inn was created for passengers on the steamboats, by converting one of the lock houses on the flight. Three steamboats regularly ran between Glasgow and Inverness, taking six days to complete the round trip.
There were some teething problems, and the canal was closed for two weeks in April 1829 while problems with the Banavie locks were rectified. James Loch, who produced a report on the canal in 1835, declared that the inn at Banavie was too small, and too far from Corpach, despite having praised it the previous year. George May produced another report in 1837, in which the Banavie locks were heavily criticised. He described the masonry as "execrable", and argued that the contractor who had built them had not expected them ever to be used, but had somehow managed to hide the poor workmanship from Telford. A suggestion that the canal should be abandoned was, however, circumvented. Repairs to the locks were required in 1880 and in 1910: there were serious defects in the masonry. By the end of the First World War, the canal was in serious financial difficulties, with maintenance costs far exceeding revenue, and in 1920 the Ministry of Transport made a grant of £11,000 for major repairs to the Banavie locks. The canal closed for nine weeks while the work was carried out. A further stoppage of three months occurred in 1929, when a Drifter (fishing boat) broke through two of the Banavie lock gates, causing flooding.
The canal passed into the care of the British Waterways Board in 1962. A programme of mechanising the locks was begun, and all locks were mechanised by 1969. There were several calls to close the canal following accidents in which ships hit lock gates, or masonry collapsed, and by the 1990s the canal was in crisis. Lock walls were bulging and leaking, and the cost of rebuilding the locks and replacing the gates was estimated at £60 million. The money was not available, and so engineers devised another plan, which cost only one third of that. Over ten winters from 1995 to 2005, sections of the canal were drained, and the locks were repaired by drilling holes into the double-skinned walls, after which stainless steel rods were used to stitch the walls together, and huge quantities of grout were used to seal and waterproof the structures. New lock gates were fitted, and where necessary, new stone blocks were cut to make repairs, rather than using concrete. By the end of the project, 16,000 holes had been drilled, 25,000 tons of grout had been used, and the locks were probably in better condition than they had been since they were first built.
The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford.
The canal runs some 60 miles (100 kilometres) from northeast to southwest and reaches 106 feet (32 metres) above sea level. Only one third of the entire length is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy. These lochs are located in the Great Glen, on a geological fault in the Earth's crust. There are 29 locks (including eight at Neptune's Staircase, Banavie), four aqueducts and 10 bridges in the course of the canal.
The canal starts at its north-eastern end at Clachnaharry Sea Lock, built at the end of a man-made peninsula to ensure that boats could always reach the deep water of the Beauly Firth. Because the peninsula is built with mud foundations, it has required regular maintenance ever since. Next to the lock is the former lock-keeper's house, a two-storey building with a single-storey bothy at its western end and an enclosed garden. At an unknown date, the house was divided into two, and in 2005 the eastern half became offices for Scottish Canals. The building is a category C listed structure. At the opposite end of the peninsula to the sea lock, a swing bridge carries the Far North railway line across the canal. The first bridge at the site was designed by Joseph Mitchell for the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway, and was constructed of wrought iron in 1862. This was replaced by a similar structure in 1909, made of steel, which is 123 feet (37.5 m) long. The bridge, together with the adjacent signal box, designed by Mackenzie and Holland for the Highland Railway in 1890, is a category B listed structure.
Clachnaharry lock is next to the swing bridge, and is bordered by a smiddy and workshops, dating from the canal's construction in 1810, and extended in 1840–50. The smiddy still contains two hearths for forging metal. Muirtown Basin provides moorings at the eastern end of the canal, which takes a right-angled turn at the far end to pass under a swing bridge carrying the A862 road to reach the flight of four Muirtown Locks. From the top of the flight, the canal continues southwards to Tomnahurich swing bridge, which carries the A82 road over the canal. The original timber bridge was replaced by a steel structure in 1938, designed by Crouch and Hogg, which included a control box, as levels of traffic on the road and canal were increasing. Nearby is the former bridge keeper's cottage, built in the 1820s. It was no longer needed to house a bridge keeper after 1965, and after being empty for some years, was converted into self-catering accommodation. A short distance to the south a second swing bridge was opened in June 2021, as part of the Inverness West Link project. A new control building was built between the two bridges, so that both could be controlled from a single location. The concept behind the second bridge was that traffic could be diverted to use one of the bridges while the other was open for canal traffic.
The canal from Muirtown Locks to Dochgarroch Lock is a scheduled monument, as is Dochgarroch Lock, which was designed to protect the canal from flooding caused by fluctuating levels in the River Ness, which flows over a weir to the south of the lock. A two-storey lock keeper's cottage and barn dating from the 1850s overlooks the lock. The final section of canal to Loch Dochfour is also scheduled, and the designated area includes the weir for the River Ness, and the west bank of Loch Dochfour as far as Loch Ness. At its southern end is Bona Lighthouse, built as a house by Thomas Telford in 1815, and altered around 1848 to act as a lighthouse. The building is octagonal, with two storeys, and is a rare example of an inland light. There was once a ferry across the Bona channel at this point. In 1844, the channel was made deeper and wider when barges pulled by horses were replaced by steam tugs, and there is evidence that the building once included four stables. The canal section from Clachnaharry Sea Lock to Bona is 9.7 miles (15.6 km) long, and from there it is over 20 miles (32 km) along Loch Ness to the next canal section at Fort Augustus.
At the foot of Loch Ness, the Caledonian Canal leaves the west bank of the loch, with the River Oich to the north and the River Tarff to the south. The A82 road crosses the canal on a swing bridge, at the foot of the five locks that rise through the centre of the village of Fort Augustus. In 1975 only the locks were included in the scheduled monument designation, but that was subsequently extended to include all of the canal between them and Loch Ness, including the lighthouse at the entrance to this section of canal. At the top of the locks, a road beside the canal is spanned by a railway bridge, which was constructed to carry an intended line from Fort Augustus to Inverness. The bridge was in use from 1903 to 1906, when the railway project was abandoned. As well as the bridge, some piers built to carry the line over the River Oich can also be seen, although these are in a poor state of repair. The canal to Kytra Lock and the lock itself are both scheduled monuments. The canal continues to Cullochy Lock, where to the north of the structure there is a single storey lock keeper's cottage on the west bank which dates from the building of the canal, and a pair of two-storey houses for the lock keepers, dating from around 1830, on the east bank. On the east side of the lock is a single-storey storehouse dating from 1815 to 1820, which has three bays and internally is divided into a store and an office for the lock keeper.
The final part of the canal on this section runs from the lock to Loch Oich, and includes the abutments of a small swing bridge which formerly provided an accommodation crossing over the canal. The more modern Aberchalder swing bridge carries the A82 over the canal. A single-storey three bay cottage designed by Telford once provided housing for the bridge keeper. Nearby is the old bridge that carried the road over the River Oich, which was probably designed by James Dredge in the 1850s. It is a chain suspension bridge, and a long dry stone causeway provides access from the east. The A82 crosses the river on a three-arched concrete bridge designed by Mears and Carus-Wilson and constructed in 1932. Loch Oich is the summit of the canal, at 106 feet (32.3 m) above sea level, and despite its relatively small size compared to Loch Ness and Loch Lochy, it provides most of the 41.2 million imperial gallons (187 Ml) of water that is required each day to keep the canal operating.
The short section of canal between Loch Oich and Loch Lochy is crossed by a plate girder swing bridge carrying the A82 road at its northern end, and ends at a pair of locks at its southern end. Two jetties project out into Loch Lochy, and much of the structure is built on reclaimed land. A single-storey store with basement stands to the east of the locks, which was probably used to store materials and to provide stabling for horses while the canal was being constructed. On the west bank is Glenjade Cottage, dating from 1840 to 1860, which was once a pair of cottages but was converted into a single dwelling in the late 20th century. Ivy Cottage was also built for lock keepers, but was completed for the opening of the canal, and so is older than Glenjade cottages.
Loch Lochy is about 10 miles (16 km) long, and the next canal section starts at its southern end. Its entrance is marked by a small lighthouse, while to the east of the canal is the Mucomir Cut, which delivers water from the loch to Mucomir hydroelectric station and the River Lochy. There are two locks at Gairlochy, the upper one being the only lock which was not built for the opening of the canal. It was added in 1844, and was constructed by Jackson and Bean. Between the locks is Telford House, a large lock keeper's house built in 1811–13, and much larger than most of the other houses built along the canal. The B8084 road crosses the canal on a swing bridge at the upstream end of Gairlochy lower lock, but it is unclear whether it is part of the scheduled monument, since it is not specifically mentioned in the listing, whereas most bridges are either included or excluded. About 1.25 miles (2.01 km) further downstream is Moy Swing Bridge, an original accommodation bridge. It consists of two halves, and the lock keeper from Gairlochy opens the eastern half by operating a capstan, and then crosses the canal by punt to perform a similar action on the western half. A three-bay single-storey cottage, dating from around 1820, survives on the eastern bank of the canal next to the bridge.
The section below Moy Bridge includes four aqueducts which carry the canal over local rivers. These are the Loy aqueduct, the Muirshearlich aqueduct, the Sheangain aqueduct and the Mount Alexander aqueduct. The Loy aqueduct consists of three parallel arches, 260 feet (79 m) long, with the River Loy passing through the centre arch, and the side arches used for pedestrians and animals, although they sometimes carry flood flow from the river. Torcastle aqueduct is similar but slightly shorter at 240 feet (73 m), and carries the Allt Sheangain in two of the arches, with the third used as a roadway. Mount Alexander aqueduct only has two arches, one used by the Allt Mor, and the other a footpath.
Soon the canal arrives at the top of Neptunes Staircase, a flight of eight locks that drop the level of the canal by 64 feet (20 m) in the space of 500 yards (460 m) Halfway down the flight to the west is another house similar to that at Gairlochy, but split to provide accommodation for two lock keepers. On the eastern bank is a smithy and sawpits, dating from the 1820s, and a workshop dating from 1880 to 1890. Neptunes Staircase was originally fitted with 36 capstans each of which had to be rotated 20 times to operate the lock gates and sluices, but progress through the structure was speeded up in the 20th century when the flight was mechanised. At the foot of the locks, a swing bridge carries the A830 road over the canal, and a steel bow truss swing bridge, built in 1901 by Simpson and Wilson, carries the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig. The canal turns to the west to reach a pair of staircase locks at Corpach, which is followed by a small basin and the final sea lock to allow boats to access Loch Linnhe.
The canal has several names in Scottish Gaelic including Amar-Uisge/Seòlaid a' Ghlinne Mhòir ("Waterway of the Great Glen"), Sligh'-Uisge na h-Alba ("Waterway of Scotland") and a literal translation (An) Canàl Cailleannach.
In 1620, a Highland prophet called the Brahan Seer predicted that full-rigged ships would one day be sailing round the back of Tomnahurich, near Inverness, at a time when the only navigable route near the location was the River Ness, on the other side of Tomnahurich.
Engineers started to look at the feasibility of a canal to connect Loch Linnhe near Fort William to the Moray Firth near Inverness in the 18th century, with Captain Edward Burt rejecting the idea in 1726, as he thought the mountains would channel the wind and make navigation too precarious.
The Commissioners of Forfeited Estates had originally been set up to handle the seizure and sale of land previously owned by those who had been convicted of treason following the Jacobite rising of 1715. By 1773, they had turned their attention to helping the fishing industry, and commissioned the inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt to make a survey of the route. He published a report in 1774, which suggested that a 10-foot (3.0 m) deep canal from Fort William to Inverness, passing through Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, Loch Ness and Loch Dochfour, would require 32 locks, and could be built for £164,032. He emphasised the benefits to the fishing industry, of a shorter and safer route from the east to the west coast of Scotland, and the potential for supplying the population with cheaper corn, but again, thought that winds on the lochs might be a problem.
William Fraser, when proposing his own scheme for a canal in 1793, announced that "nature had finished more than half of it already". At the time, much of the Highlands were depressed as a result of the Highland Clearances, which had deprived many of their homes and jobs. Laws had been introduced which sought to eradicate the local culture, including bans on wearing tartan, playing the bagpipes, and speaking Scottish Gaelic. Many emigrated to Canada or elsewhere, or moved to the Scottish Lowlands. Crop failures in 1799 and 1800 brought distress to many, and prompted a new wave of emigrants to leave. The engineer Thomas Telford was asked to investigate the problem of emigration in 1801, and in 1802 published his report, which suggested that the main cause was landowners who had previously kept cattle creating vast sheep-farms. Realising that direct government action to confront the issue would be seen as interference, he therefore suggested that a programme of public works, involving roads, bridges, and canals, would be a way to provide jobs for people who had been displaced by the sheep farming, and to stimulate industry, fishery, and agriculture.
Telford consulted widely with shipowners, who favoured a canal instead of the hazardous journey around the north of Scotland via Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth. He obtained advice from Captain Gwynn of the Royal Navy, who stated that Loch Ness and Loch Lochy were sufficiently deep for any size of boat, and had safe anchorages if winds proved to be a problem, but that Loch Oich would need to be made deeper, as it was shallow in places. He established that Loch Garry, to the west of Invergarry, and Loch Quoich, beyond that, would provide an adequate water supply. He estimated that a canal suitable for ships with a draught of 20 feet (6.1 m) could be built in seven years, and would cost around £350,000 . An additional benefit would be the protection that the canal offered to shipping from attacks by French privateers. Telford also looked at the possibility of a canal to link Loch Eil to Loch Shiel, both to the west of Fort William, but ruled out the scheme because of the depth of cuttings that would have been required. The canal, as well as a number of projects to build roads, harbours and bridges, was the first time that public works of this sort had been funded by the government. Telford had convinced them that it was feasible, and that employing local people on it would help to stop the tide of emigration, but no one considered whether it would pay its way when it was completed.
On 27 July 1803, an Act of Parliament was passed to authorise the project, and carried the title: An Act for granting to his Majesty the Sum of £20,000, towards defraying the Expense of making an Inland Navigation from the western to the eastern Sea, by Inverness and Fort William; and for taking the necessary steps towards executing the same. The Act appointed commissioners, to oversee the project, and some funding to enable the work to start. Less than a year later, on 29 June 1804, the commissioners obtained a second Act of Parliament, which granted them £50,000 per year of government money, payable in two instalments, to fund the ongoing work.
Provision was made for private investors to buy shares in the scheme, for any amount over £50, and as well as building the main line of the canal, the engineers could alter Loch Garry, Loch Quoich and Loch Arkaig, to improve their function as reservoirs. Telford was asked to survey, design and build the waterway. He worked with William Jessop on the survey, and the two men oversaw the construction until Jessop died in 1814. The canal was expected to take seven years to complete, and to cost £474,000, to be funded by the Government, but both estimates were inadequate. Telford understood the need for competent men to be involved in such a grand project, and convinced most of those who had been involved with him on building the Ellesmere Canal and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct to move north to Scotland. He ensured that Jessop became the consulting engineer, while Matthew Davidson, who was a stonemason from Dumfrieshire and had been Superintendent of Works on the Ellesmere project, became the resident engineer at the Clachnaharry end, near Inverness. The Corpach end, near Fort William, was managed by John Telford, who is thought not to have been related to Thomas, but was known to him from Ellesmere. At the time, Telford's scheme for the development of the Highlands was the largest programme of works ever undertaken for a specific area in Britain.
Telford was responsible to the Caledonian Canal Commissioners in London for the canal work, and to the Commissioners for Roads and Bridges for the construction of roads. He visited the Highlands twice a year, to plan the work and inspect the progress, and was always on the move, to the extent that the Canal Commissioners allowed him to choose the dates when he would find it convenient to meet with them. In the Highlands, Telford faced a number of problems, in that the canal was to be built in an area where people lived a subsistence lifestyle, managing by keeping a few cows and paying low rents. They had virtually no knowledge of wheeled vehicles, and no construction skills, but were hardy and willing to learn. While surveying the route for the canal, Telford agreed to increase the size of the locks to accommodate 32-gun frigates for the Royal Navy, and Jessop insisted that the locks should be built of stone, rather than having turf sides, as Telford had suggested.
The highest point on the route was at Laggan, between Lock Oich and Loch Lochy. A deep cutting was required, so that the canal continued at the same level as Loch Oich. The loch would need dredging, because it was too shallow in places, but it was fed by water from Loch Garry and Loch Quoich to the west, which would provide a suitable supply for the canal. To reduce the depth of cutting between Loch Oich and Loch Lochy, a dam would be built at the south end of Loch Lochy, to raise its level by 12 feet (3.7 m). A new channel for the River Lochy would be cut, allowing it to flow into the River Spean, so that its previous course could be used for the canal. Similarly, heading north from Loch Oich, parts of the canal would be constructed in the bed of the River Oich, which would be diverted to the east. At the northern end of Loch Ness, the channel through Loch Dochfour would have to be made deeper, and a weir was to be constructed at its northern end, to maintain the loch at the same level as Loch Ness.
Telford and Jessop had a long list of things to do, because of the lack of construction skills in the region where the canal was built. As well as the normal surveying, inspection and payment duties, they had to train local people in how to become workers. They were required to source all of the building materials, to construct workshops and settlements for the workers, design tools and waggons to be used by the workers, and in some cases, ensure they had supplies of food and drink. All of the money provided by Parliament passed through Telford's personal bank account. Because of the remoteness of the location, construction was started at both ends, so that completed sections could be used to bring in the materials for the middle sections. In order to help the Highlanders to learn the habits of paid employment, Telford appointed organisers and pace-setters, who would impart skill and activity to the other workers, and wherever possible, the work was done by piecework, so that earthworks were paid at 6 pence (2.5p) per cubic yard, cutting rock in Corpach Basin was paid at two shillings (10p) per cubic yard, and rubble masonry work was paid at 11 shillings (55p) per cubic yard, for example. The number of men employed fluctuated widely, not least because many would take time off to attend to peat cutting, herring fishing or harvesting. John Telford was upset because many of his men did not return after the harvest, but they were not used to working during the winter months. Many saw working on the canal as a way to supplement their meagre income, not as a way to escape from their subsistence livelihood.
At Clachnaharry, to the west of Inverness, Davidson was overseeing the construction. Clachnaharry Lock was the first to be constructed at the eastern end of the canal, being completed in 1807 by Simpson and Cargill. Simpson was another of Telford's recruits from the Ellesmere project. Muirtown Basin was also completed in the same year. It was 800 by 140 yards (730 by 130 m), and construction was aided by the fact that its bottom was above the level of low tides, and so it was relatively easy to keep the works dry. The road from the basin into Inverness was renamed Telford Street, and Simpson and Cargill built a row of houses for overseers and contractors to live in, including themselves. To build the sea lock, two banks were built out into the Beauly Firth across mud which was 56 feet (17 m) deep. Two tramways with a gauge of 3 ft 3 in (991 mm) were constructed along the banks, to bring rubble and earth to extend the banks. By the time the banks were completed, the price of foreign timber to construct a coffer dam had risen so much that work was postponed. The four Muirtown locks were finished in 1909. During this time, Davidson noticed that the sea banks were settling into the mud, and the idea of turning the two banks into a peninsula and then excavating the lock into it was formulated. It is unclear whether the concept was Telford's, Jessop's or Davidson's, but it saved the expense of building a coffer dam. The peninsula was allowed to settle for six months before excavation began, and a 6 hp (4.5 kW) Boulton and Watt steam engine was used to keep the lock pit dry during the work. The structure was completed in 1812, three years later than Davidson's original estimate.
At Corpach, near Fort William, John Telford faced a number of problems. The entrance lock and the basin were built on rock, and this entailed excavating rock below the level of Loch Linnhe. A 20 hp (15 kW) steam engine was ordered from Boulton and Watt at Birmingham, to keep the work area dry, and an embankment was built beyond the sea lock, which served as a quay for incoming materials until the lock was constructed. Masons built several buildings at Corpach, but then moved on to building the aqueducts to carry the canal over rivers, since the lower canal needed to be completed to enable materials to be brought to the great flight of locks at Banavie. The work was to prove a serious challenge to John Telford's health and he died in 1807, to be replaced by Alexander Easton. He was buried in Kilmallie churchyard, where his ornate grave, now in dilapidated condition, can still be seen.
At Banavie, two houses for lock keepers were built by Simpson and Wilson before work on the locks started, which were occupied by masons during the estimated four years that it would take to finish the flight. The stonework was largely completed by 1811, three and a half years after work started. By early 1810, the steam engine at Corpach was ready, and the coffer dam to enable the sea lock to be built was completed by mid-1810, after considerable difficulty. Completing the lock was a priority, because the steam engine had to be kept running until the gates could hold back the sea, and it was the first lock to become operational, being completed just before the sea lock at Clachnaharry. By 1816, the canal was complete as far as Loch Lochy, but could not be used until the level of the loch was raised, and that depended on work further along the canal being completed.
The ground through which the canal was cut was variable, and further difficulties were experienced with the construction of the locks, the largest ever built at the time. There were also problems with the labour force, with high levels of absence, particularly during and after the potato harvest and the peat cutting season. This led to Telford bringing in Irish navvies to manage the shortfall, which led to further criticism, since one of the main aims of the project was to reduce unemployment in the Highlands. The canal finally opened in 1822, having taken an extra 12 years to complete, and cost £910,000. Over 3,000 local people had been employed in its construction, but the draught had been reduced from 20 to 15 ft (6.1 to 4.6 m) in an effort to save costs. In the meantime, shipbuilding had advanced, with the introduction of steam-powered iron-hulled ships, many of which were by that time too big to use the canal. The Royal Navy did not need to use the canal either, as Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo in 1815, and the perceived threat to shipping when the canal was started was now gone.
Before long, defects in some of the materials used became apparent, and part of Corpach double lock collapsed in 1843. This led to a decision to close the canal to allow repairs to be carried out, and the depth was increased to 18 feet (5.5 m) at the same time. The work was designed by Telford's associate James Walker, carried out by Jackson and Bean of Aston, Birmingham and completed between 1843 and 1847 at a cost of £136,089. However, not all of the traffic expected to return to using the canal did so. Commercially, the venture was not a success, but the dramatic scenery through which it passes led to it becoming a tourist attraction. Queen Victoria took a trip along it in 1873, and the publicity surrounding the trip resulted in a large increase in visitors to the region and the canal. The arrival of the railways at Fort William, Fort Augustus and Inverness did little to harm the canal, as trains were scheduled to connect with steamboat services.
There was an upsurge in commercial traffic during the First World War, when components for the construction of mines were shipped through the canal on their way from America to “U.S. Naval Base 18” (Muirtown Basin, Inverness), and fishing boats used it to avoid possible enemy action on the longer route around the north of Scotland. During this period there was 24-hour operation, facilitated by buoyage and lighting throughout its length. Ownership passed to the Ministry of Transport in 1920, and then to British Waterways in 1962. Improvements were made, with the locks being mechanised between 1964 and 1969. By 1990, the canal was in obvious need of restoration, with lock walls bulging, and it was estimated that repairs would cost £60 million. With no prospect of the Government funding this, British Waterways devised a repair plan, and between 1995 and 2005, sections of the canal were drained each winter. Stainless steel rods were used to tie the double-skinned lock walls together, and over 25,000 tonnes of grout were injected into the lock structures. All of the lock gates were replaced, and the result was a canal whose structures were probably in a better condition than they had ever been.[85] In 1993, British Waterways and Parks Canada agreed to twin the canal with the Rideau Canal in Ontario, Canada.
The canal is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and attracts over 500,000 visitors each year. British Waterways, who work with the Highland Council and Forestry and Land Scotland through the Great Glen Ways Initiative, were hoping to increase this number to over 1 million by 2012. There are many ways for tourists to enjoy the canal, such as taking part in the Great Glen Rally, cycling along the tow-paths, or cruising on hotel barges.
Banavie is a small settlement near Fort William in the Highland Council Area of Scotland. One of the closest villages to Ben Nevis, it is about 4 kilometres (2+1⁄2 miles) northeast of Fort William town centre, next to Caol and Corpach.
It has been suggested that Banavie is one of the possible birth places of Saint Patrick. One theory is that Patrick was the son of a Roman tax collector and born at Banavie around AD 389. His family had come with the Romans who had invaded the West Highlands and Islands. The 19th century work 'History of Celtic Placenames' by William J. Watson notes: "St Patrick was born at Banna-venta, an early town south of the Grampians." A similar placename, Bannavem Taburniae, is mentioned in one of the only two known authenticated letters by St Patrick.
It was formerly where the Camanachd Association, the ruling body of shinty was based, but this has now been moved to Inverness.
Banavie railway station is on the highly scenic West Highland Line. The signalling centre at the station uses radio communications to control train movements on the West Highland Line. It covers a big area from Fort William to Mallaig and from Fort William to Helensburgh including the branch line to Oban.
The Caledonian Canal passes through Banavie, before ascending Neptune's Staircase, the longest staircase lock in the United Kingdom. The canal is crossed by two swing bridges, one carrying the railway and the other the A835 road. Banavie Pier railway station served the canal paddle steamers until 1939. The station building, platform and station master's house still survive as private dwellings.
The village has a number of bed and breakfast, guesthouses, self-catering and hotels.
The scenery around Banavie is exceptional with Ben Nevis dominant in the skyline. The Caledonian Canal passes through the village at Neptune's Staircase, which is a set of lock gates that raise vessels into Banavie upper canal area which has a long pontoon for visiting boats and yachts.
The Great Glen Way long distance path also passes through the village, mostly following the canal tow-path to Gairlochy.
Notable people
Besides St Patrick, Mary Earle (then Mary Cameron) was born here in 1929. She rose to be Professor of Food Technology in New Zealand but she never forgot her links to Scotland.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
737-800 with New Split Scimitar Winglets. Amazing, how far and deep that quest for efficiency could reach into the 'nature of things'...
There's some interesting material overview the 'winglet issues'.
Carl Lauren, owner of Tyee Homes in Kimberley B.C. uses energy efficiency systems such as on-demand hot water heaters and good insulation to build homes between EnergyGuide 83 and 90. Under Kimberley's creative energy efficiency program his homes will get a rebate of between $1,500 and $2,000 on the building permit fees depending on how high the EnerGuide rating is when the home is complete. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca Full story: www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/kimberley-green-buildin...
Construction site on the Talimarjan Power Plant. ADB is helping Uzbekistan boost the efficiency of its electricity supply by building an 800-megawatt combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Talimarjan, Uzbekistan.
ADB Photo | Nikita Makarenko
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Main characteristics of the pilot construction of our UNDP Project. It explains measures (heat recovery ventilation system, EE windows and other) proposed by the Project and their expected heat consumption reduction (30%).
View a bigger version of this infographic.
On Earth Day 2012, MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota, right, announced that every trip New Yorkers make on an MTA train, subway or bus prevents an average of more than 10 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere, according to a new report. The MTA's efficiency is made possible with support from the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA). NYSERDA President and CEO Francis J. Murray is at the lectern. At left is Gil C. Quiniones, President and CEO of NYPA. Photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.
Food service businesses (restaurants and grocery stores) use 2.5 times more energy than the average commercial business. Think about it: all the stoves, ovens, heat lamps, dish washers, refrigerators, and fryers turning out meal after meal, it makes sense that they are energy intensive. However, kitchens are also hectic places where simple energy wasters often get ignored in the hustle and bustle.
Richard Young, from the Food Service Technology Center in California, highlighted a long list of simple changes that food service businesses can make that can shave big bucks off their energy bills at his presentation at Dunwoody College on Monday March 21st. From stopping leaking faucets and closing ice maker lids all the way to replacing exhaust hoods and re-doing their lighting, businesses have a huge variety of opportunities, from small to large, free to expensive.
To learn more, visit mncerts.org.
255 South Champlain Street, Burlington, Vermont USA • Interior shot of the offices of Efficiency Vermont:
WHO WE ARE - Efficiency Vermont is the nation's first statewide provider of energy efficiency services. We're operated by an independent, non-profit organization under contract to the Vermont Public Service Board.
WHAT WE DO - Efficiency Vermont provides technical assistance and financial incentives to Vermont households and businesses, to help them reduce their energy costs with energy-efficient equipment and lighting and with energy-efficient approaches to construction and renovation.