Floodgate

The storage lock is a technical precursor to the chamber lock . Lock locks had only one gate that z. B. blocked the drain of a small lake. If enough raft wood had accumulated on the lake , the gate was opened for a limited time. The wood was carried away by the stream of water on a sloping, wood-framed level ( flood channel ). In this way, smaller ships could also be “funneled”. They had to be dragged with great effort against the current. Were weirs usually part of the mill jams of water mills . The work of the mill had to be interrupted for each passage of the ship. They disappeared after the invention of the chamber lock.

Preserved water locks

• Dückerschleuse near Lauenburg

Web links

• Winfried Schich: The Havel as a waterway in the Middle Ages (PDF; 299 kB), with a detailed description of the mill dam in Brandenburg