Glossary

7. Documentation

1. Photographs, slides, image inventory and authorization table and other audiovisual materials
2. Texts relating to protective designation, copies of property management plans or documented management systems and extracts of other plans relevant to the property
3. Form and date of most recent records or inventory of property
4. Addresses where inventory, records, and archives are held
5. Bibliography
6. List of Appended Documents and Information
7. Glossary

G. Glossary of Terms

American War of Independence: The 1776-1783 military struggle for independence from Great Britain by the Thirteen Colonies, culminating in the establishment of the United States of America.

Approach: The channel of water leading to a lock or set of locks.

Basin: A man-made area of water bordered by land, and sometimes constructed walls, where vessels can turn or moor.

Blockhouse: A defensible military structure, typically built as a two-storey building. The lower storey is of stone, the upper of timber, with portals for artillery and musket fire.

Bridgeman's House: A small building constructed as a shelter for the operator of a bridge.

Battery: A platform, usually protected by a parapet, which houses artillery and from which it is fired.

Canadian Shield: The massive area of Precambrian rock that spans much of the Canadian north. A section of the Canadian Shield, the Frontenac Arch, crosses the path of the southern sections of the Rideau Canal.

Caponier: A protected passageway extending into or across a ditch, from which guns can be fired along the length of the ditch.

Casemate: A vaulted chamber built in the thickness of the walls of a fortification. Designed to withstand artillery bombardments, casemates were often used as a barrack.

Chamber (lock chamber): The area enclosed by two masonry walls and a set of lock gates at each end.

Channel: The designated route for vessel navigation, identified by marker buoys and with a guaranteed depth of water.

Citadel: A fortress built to protect a town or other strategic site.

Coffer Dam: A temporary structure enclosing part of a body of water to allow it to be pumped dry for construction purposes.

Commissariat: An administrative arm of the British Army responsible for supply and, in the case of the Rideau Canal, the provision of construction materials.

Conservation Authority: An agency established under the Province of Ontario’s Conservation Authority Act , which is responsible for watershed management.

Corps of Royal Engineers: A military unit established by the British Army in the late 18th century.

Crab: Winch with a hand crank used to move heavy objects (lock gates and sluices). Also referred to as “crabs and chains” since chains are used to attach the crab to the object to be moved.

Cultural Resource Management Policy: A set of principles and directions for the management of historic and cultural buildings, materials and objects managed by the Parks Canada Agency, established under the authority of the Parks Canada Agency Act.

Dam: A barrier built across a watercourse to impound water for a specific purpose, such as the creation of a slackwater canal system.

Defensible Lockmaster’s House: Single-storey stone residential building with loopholes in the walls, built to defend lock installations on the Rideau Canal, as part of its fortifications system.

Ditch: A dry trench built as a defensive feature outside a fortified work.

Draught: The depth of the hull of a vessel, which dictates the amount of water required for its navigation.

Excavated Canal System: A navigable waterway established by digging long ditches, with locks to overcome elevation differences. Feeder channels supply water from natural watercourses.

Federal Heritage Building Policy (FHBP): A set of Government of Canada principles and directions, administered by the Federal Heritage Building Review Office, for the management of buildings owned by the Government of Canada, for the conservation of their heritage values.

Flight of Locks: A series of joined locks overcoming an elevation of land to permit the passage of vessels.

Flying Level: A surveying term referring to the process of taking consecutive survey lines across country.

Gate(s): (of a lock) Massive hinged doors built in pairs. When closed they retain water in the lock and are opened and closed to permit the passage of boats.

Glacis: The sloping ground in front of a fortified work extending down to open country, cleared of all obstacles to expose an advancing enemy to direct fire.

Grout: A thin mortar that can flow or be injected under pressure to seal cracks in stone walls.

Guillotine Valve (or vertical lift gate): A gate used in dam design for controlling the rate of flow into or from a canal. A rectangular gate set in guides, within which the gate moves up and down.

Hog’s Back Falls: A natural waterfall on the Rideau River, which was a major obstacle to the construction of the Rideau Canal. Its name comes from the high ridge of rock in the middle of the falls that resembles the back of a wild boar. The name was adapted over time to ‘Hogs Back’, when referring to the lockstation.

Industrial Revolution: The rapid process of the 18th and 19th centuries by which advancements in technology, organization and financing led to the reorganization of the economies of Europe, from small-scale artisan-based manufacturing to high levels of mass production using factories.

Keywork: Shaped stones fitted together, usually on the downstream face of a dam.

King Post Swing Bridge: A type of moving bridge whose deck pivots horizontally on an axis.

Lock: A watertight chamber with gates. Valves at both ends allow water to be let in, or let out, to raise or lower a vessel from one water level to another.

Lockmaster: The overseer responsible for operation of a lockstation.

Lower Canada: The name given to Quebec by the British Government to distinguish it from the colony of Upper Canada. Lower Canada became the Province of Quebec at the time of Canadian Confederation.

Malaria: A disease caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, characterized by recurring fever and chills. Can be fatal.

Martello Tower: Originally a European coastal tower mounting guns on its top level, and housing stores and barrack facilities. The British favoured these towers because they were quick and economical to build.

Masonry: The assembly of bricks, rubble stone or cut blocks of stone using mortar in the joints between pieces.

Napoleonic Wars: A series of major conflicts between France, under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, and an alliance of other European countries. Fought over a time span of two decades, the Napoleonic Wars culminated with the defeat of French forces at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Navigable: Having water of sufficient depth to allow for boat travel.

Ordnance: A generic term referring to all types of armament, and in particular artillery.

Pony Truss Swing Bridge: A bridge with a movable deck that opens by rotating horizontally on an axis.

Redoubt: An enclosed fortification.

Reservoir: A man-made body of water that allows for water storage.

Rideau Canal Corridor: The general linear landscape through which the Rideau Canal passes.

Sappers and Miners: Soldiers of the British Army experienced in excavation and construction.

Scherzer Rolling Bascule Bridge: A bridge with a horizontal span that rotates on a vertical axis, and with a large counterweight to raise one end vertically. Bascule bridges were designed and patented by Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company of Chicago.

Sill: The flat ‘floor’ at both ends of a lock on which the bases of the gates rests.

Slackwater Canal System: A navigable waterway established by the impoundment of a series of natural watercourses through the construction of dams and locks.

Sluice: A conduit through which water can flow in a controlled manner.

Spillway: A fixed dam designed to discharge surplus water from a slackwater section of a waterway. Also called an overflow dam.

Stop Log: Squared timber that can be dropped into slots at the end of a lock, or in a weir, to stop the flow of water.

Theodolite Traverse: A surveying process to measure elevation, distance and angles.

Towpath: A man-made walkway used by draught animals as they pull vessels through a canal.

Undertow: Current below the water’s surface moving in the opposite direction to the surface current.

United Empire Loyalists: Inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies, which later became the United States of America, who remained loyal to Great Britain during the American War of Independence. Many resettled to Canada in 1783-1784, following that conflict.

Upper Canada: A colony of Great Britain established along the north shore of the Great Lakes with the settlement of the United Empire Loyalists. Later became the Province of Ontario.

War of 1812: Conflict between Great Britain and the United States of America fought from 1812 to 1814 in North America, mostly in Upper Canada. Ended with the Treaty of Ghent.

Weir: A dam structure with bays or sluiceways that allows the flow of water to be controlled.

Wetland: An area characterized by permanently wet soil. Provides important habitat for many animal and plant species.