For many centuries, canal boats were propelled by men, horses or mules on the towpath beside the water. Before diesel power took over, engineers developed several interesting methods powered by electricity: trolleyboats, floating funiculars and electric mules. Many of these ecological solutions could be applied today instead of diesel engines. Because of the very low energy requirements, they could easily be powered by renewable energy, generated on the spot by water turbines located at sluices. One trolleyboat line is still in use.
Many different systems were designed and tested, of which the system invented by Richard Lamb became the best known (picture above). In 1896, three years after the experiments with the Frank W. Hawley trolleyboat the Lamb system was tested on a 6 kilometre (3.7 miles) stretch of the Erie Canal (at Tonawanda) and on the Raritan Canal in New Jersey. The idea was to use cheap electricity generated by the Niagara waterfalls, but eventually nothing happened. In 1898, the Lamb system was tested on the Finow Canal in Germany, but the Germans decided in favour of electric mules.
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