The former was designed by Edwin Clark during Queen Victoria's reign to speed up the movement of cargo between the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal and was built in 1875. The Falkirk Wheel, the world's first rotating boat lift, was completed in 2002 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

Despite the 127 years gap between the two original projects, similar operational requirements have placed local rubber engineering company, Portmere Rubber Ltd, at the technological heart of both.

Each has its own unique and specific sealing needs and Southampton based Portmere have successfully provided the solutions.

In 1983 the Anderton Boat Lift was closed after serious corrosion was discovered during a routine safety inspection. A huge amount has changed over the following 20 years and a new spirit of optimism and enthusiasm is now sweeping across the UK's 200-year-old inland waterway network. British Waterways is openly hailing a New Canal Age.

A partnership of public, private and voluntary organisations is helping to restore canals at the same rate that they were built at the height of canal mania in the 1790s and the Anderton Boat Lift is one of British Waterways flagship restoration projects.

The unique sealing solution, provided by Portmere Rubber, not only needed to satisfy the requirements of operational efficiency and safety, but also had to inconspicuously maintain the originality of what is a national treasure. Special design, development and manufacturing skills were employed in order to meet these specific needs. With Portmere's help, the Anderton Boat Lift has been restored to its original working condition, enabling boat owners and visitors alike to ride it once again.

The Falkirk Wheel, the world's first rotating boatlift, combines the best civil and heavy engineering design with contemporary construction techniques to produce an eye-catching boatlift that has an estimated lifespan of some 120 years. The Wheel, like most showpiece projects, owes its impressive success to the innovative design, manufacture and operation of many fundamental component parts such as the rubber seals used on its gondola gates.

Designed and fabricated by Portmere, the seals located at the end of each gate ensure that the two 22m long gondolas, each carrying a 300-tonne payload, remain completely watertight as the wheel transfers boating traffic between two canals with height differentials of approximately 35m. The Wheel transports eight or more boats at a time and a single trip takes about 15 minutes.

Several types of sealing arrangements were considered for this project, a couple of which were manufactured on a reduced scale for trials. Following varying degrees of success, a seal type evolved to suit all purposes.

All door closing arrangements and the face at the Aqueduct and Basin ends have fabricated 'P' seals, a speciality seal manufactured in the workshops of Portmere Rubber Ltd.

The seals are made up from a central core of expanded natural rubber to give the best resilience to squashing. They are covered in 1mm thick Hypalon 'inflatable dinghy material' for tear resistance and strength. This in turn is covered in 1.5mm of British Standard grade C40 Neoprene rubber to provide a soft external covering which is resistant to light oils, sunlight and water. The seals are 40mm in bulb diameter, weigh approximately 1kg/m and keep out 200 tonnes of water.

All layers were bonded together using Neoprene based waterproof adhesive.

The expanding sections of the Aqueduct and Basin ends have a large 'U' section bellows that expands from approximately 100mm to 220mm each time they operate. These again have been fabricated using a 3mm layer of Neoprene rubber inside and out.

The central fabric is particularly tough, being used for flexible fuel tanks and Hoverskirts.

This has a tensile strength of 4000kg/50m and is built to resist any damage from debris.

The seals are environmentally friendly and, although small and insignificant in size, perform a vital role.

Portmere Rubber's expertise has been called upon well beyond British shores.

Emergency collision buffers manufactured by Portmere are ensuring that visitors to Universal Studios' Jurassic Park water rides in the United States can enjoy their adventure experience in comfort and safety.

Designed to absorb impact if bumped from behind, the buffers are attached centrally to the rear of glassfibre boats, each of which transports approximately 25 visitors through water rides located in both the Florida and California theme parks.

The manufacture of these buffers highlighted several adhesion challenges. These focused on not just the construction of the actual buffer itself but also on its attachment to the material for fixing onto the fibreglass boats.

The buffers are made of 25mm closed cell natural rubber foam layers, which have been laminated together to a thickness of 400mm. This 400mm foam is then shaped into a wedge by hand cutting and grinding. At this stage the wedges are bonded to fibreglass and stainless steel plates before being totally covered in a 1mm layer of tough insertion dinghy material prior to being bolted onto the boats.

Difficulties overcome included the bonding of the 25mm layers of foam, which do not have smooth surfaces, the adhesion of the foam to both glassfibre and stainless steel and the adhesion strength required to ensure that all the buffers' exterior seams remain sealed. In addition to these manufacturing challenges, the need for a completely waterproof adhesive was paramount as the bottom of each buffer is constantly immersed in water and the remainder gets splashed every few minutes.

To date Portmere Rubber has supplied buffers for 32 of these 25' x 10' boats, designed and built in Weymouth UK by W J Tod.

Established in 1978 by D W Carter and celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, Portmere Rubber have applied their expertise in many testing environments and Kevin Fisher, Managing Director, is particularly proud of the reputation gained over the years. He said, 'We have a ''hands-on'' approach to seal design and have worked in a variety of operational environments with companies such as Halcrow and Posford Haskoning which are best known for ports, harbours and coastal work. We also work with KGA Associates and the Materials Research Department of Southampton Institute, where prototypes and materials can be tested'.

The company's portfolio of customers includes leading vessel builders such as VT Halmatic and Souter Marine as well as shipyards up and down the country including A & P Group, DML, VT Group and FSL. The company works in close association with the RNLI supplying and testing materials. Portmere supply fendering, hoses, hatch seals, sheet rubber and foam to the general marine industry.