File:Schlussdorf Klappstau (flap weir) replica.jpg

English: Torfschiffswerft Schlussdorf: Replica of a Klappstau, a flap weir, invented by 1830 by Canal Steward (Kanalvogt) Müller from Wörpedorf (Wörpdorp). It is a leather flap vertically flexible and horizontally enforced by parallel wooden boards applicated on the downstream side and upheld on the upstream side by the headwater and on the downstream side by a guiding lateral edges bent upstream. So when a vessel approaches upstream its bow well sticks out above the upper edge of the concavely bent flap weir and by moving on its sloping underside gently presses down the flap, allowing the vessel to skim over it with the swashing downstream torrent. Moving upstream needs more manpower pushing the vessel's bow against the convexly bent flap weir to press it down against the headwater's counterpressure and then steering the barge against the downstream torrent. Mire Commissioner (Moorkommissar) Claus Witte (1796–1861; 1826-1861 in office) promoted Müller's idea, however, the new practical tool was very expensive, so that it took until 1840 that the first samples got installed in a watercourse at Eickedorf (Eekdorp), soon spreading to all navigable watercourses in the Teufelsmoor.