An inclined plane is a type of cable railway used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings. History Inclined planes have evolved over the centuries. Some of the first were used by the Egyptians to bypass waterfalls on the Nile. These consisted of wooden slides covered with silt which reduced friction. Timeline 600BC – The Diolkos, an early Greek inclined plane, was in use. 385AD – Inclined planes were in use on the Grand Canal in China. 1167 – Nieuwedamme overtoom (a simple type of incline) was built at Ypres. 1568 – Wagon of Zafosina in use near Venice. 1777 – 3 inclined planes or 'dry wherries' began operation on Dukart's Canal, near Coalisland, in the south-east of County Tyrone in Ulster. 1788 – An inclined plane was built by William Reynolds and used, for the first time in England, to raise canal boats on England's Ketley Canal. 1792 – William Reynolds of Ketley Ironworks constructed several inclined planes on the Shropshire Canal. 1792 - 1921 – In 1792 the Shropshire Tub Canals were built incorporating a number of inclined planes. One of these, the Trench plane closed in 1921 and brought to an end boat-carrying inclined planes in Britain 1797 - 1822 – At Worsley Navigable Levels, a coal mine operation in Greater Manchester, England, an underground incline started in 1795 was completed in 1797. 1800 – Francis Henry Egerton (1756-1829), who became The 8th Earl of Bridgewater in 1823, wrote 'The Description of the Inclined Plane at Walkden Moor. (Lancashire) 1806 - 1828 Two inclined planes built on the Stollen Canal at Gliwice, Upper Silesia. 1831 - 1924 – Between 1825 and 1831, 23 inclines were built as part of the Morris Canal, New Jersey, USA. This waterway, long, connected the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, rising more than . In 1832, Frances Trollope, publishes in "Domestic Manners of the Americans" her account of a visit the previous year to see one of the inclined planes of the Morris Canal. In 1924 the canal was abandoned and later dismantled. The Morris Canal's design was reused for the planes on the Elbląg Canal. (see below) 1837 - 1865 – The extension to the Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal, Wales opened in 1837, including two counterbalanced inclined planes and one single-track one. 1849 -