He put forward the idea that this contour could be used to define the course of a large European sized canal which contained no locks except at its entry and exit points.
[1] Feeder conduit canals at the same contour level would have been used to bring water into the system from North Wales, The Pennines and the South West Peninsula.
(For comparison, this would be a CEMT Class VIb waterway, carrying ships of similar size to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal.)
The Elan Valley Reservoirs scheme (1892) in mid-Wales (capacity 99,000 megalitres) which includes (with four others) the Craig Goch Dam[3] provides water to Birmingham (pop.
By 1875 it was obvious that growing population of the city would need even more water, so plans were drawn up to construct a reservoir in the Lake District.