Page "Lock (water transport)" Paragraph 9

In medieval Europe a type of pound lock was first built in 1373 at Vreeswijk, Netherlands.

This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin, yet the true pound lock ( i. e. one for a small basin ) came in 1396 with the one built at Damme near Bruges.

A famous civil engineer of pound locks in Europe was the Italian Bertola da Novate ( c. 1410 – 1475 ), who constructed 18 of them on the Naviglio di Bereguardo ( part of the Milan canal system sponsored by Francesco Sforza ) between the years 1452 and 1458.