Why a Weighlock?

Why a Weighlock?. . A weighlock was used to weigh canalboats so that a tariff could be determined on the cargo. Each time a boat captain took on a new cargo, he was required to have the cargo weighed and pay a toll., Boats were weighed once a year to determine the empty weight. Then when cargo was loaded, the boat was weighed again. The loaded weight was subtracted from the empty weight. The remainder was the cargo weight., The Syracuse Weighlock was situated precisely where the Oswego Canal joined the Erie. Boats traveling either canal were forced to stop and be weighed in Syracuse. In 1922 the canals were filled in and today they are Erie and Oswego Boulevards. The Weighlock persisted as a State Engineering headquarters and then opened as the Erie Canal Museum in 1962. , How a weighlock operated: , A. The boat was drawn into the lock chamber and the gates closed. , B. Small sluice gates, located at the chamber's bottom, drained the water the same way water is drained from a bathtub. , C. As the water level dropped, so did the boat. , D. The boat came to rest on a wooden cradle at the bottom of the chamber. , E. This activated the scale. , F. Once the weight was recorded a second set of sluice gates located at the base of the lockgate pulled water from the canal and refilled the chamber.