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Lock (water navigation)
Device for raising and lowering boats or ships / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Not to be confused with Loch.
"Gate (water transport)" redirects here. Not to be confused with Water gate.
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls.[1]
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![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/HeidelbergLock2.jpg/640px-HeidelbergLock2.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Three_Gorges_Dam_Ship_Locks.jpg/640px-Three_Gorges_Dam_Ship_Locks.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Lock_in_the_Hatton_Locks.jpg/640px-Lock_in_the_Hatton_Locks.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Iroquois_Lock_%282005%29.jpg/640px-Iroquois_Lock_%282005%29.jpg)
Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level.[2] Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a more direct route to be taken.