| 释义 |
coffer-dam
[f. coffer + dam.]
1. Hydraulic Engin. A water-tight enclosure used for obtaining a dry foundation for bridges, piers, etc.; usually constructed of two rows of piles with clay packed between them, extending above high-water mark; the water being pumped out so as to leave the enclosure dry.
b. Also a water-tight structure fixed to a ship's side, for making repairs below the water-line.
1736N. Hawksmoor Acc. Lond. Bridge 26 The way he proposes to lay the foundation is with Coffer-dams. 1751C. Labelye Westm. Br. 49 Why could not the Foundations of the Piers have been laid by the help of Coffer-dams? 1776G. Semple Building in Water 30 They have..of late translated the Word Batterdeaux, and rendered it Coffer-dam, which I presume, is a Word or technical Term not used, nor even so much as known in the English Tongue before the Year 1734. 1862Smiles Engineers III. 412 The piles had been driven, and the coffer-dams formed and puddled. 1890Daily News 28 Jan. 6/1 It was necessary to construct a coffer dam inside the ship, and after the external patching to fill this dam with cement.
fig.1876E. Jenkins Queen's Head 10 No..substituting of modern iron bedsteads for the ancient and capacious coffer-dams wherein their ancestors used to bury themselves at night.
2. (See quots.)
1881Advance (Chicago) 28 Apr. 271 A new absorbent..from the cocoanut fibre..called cofferdam, and will hold..from 12 to 14 times its own weight of water. 1885Daily Tel. 27 May, It has been discovered..that a composition obtained from pulverised cocoanut cellulose has the..property, when penetrated by shot..of closing up instantaneously, so as to prevent the influx of water into a ship's hold. The name of ‘cofferdam’ has been given to this preparation.
3. attrib., as coffer-dam work, work performed in, or by means of, a coffer-dam.
1772Hutton Bridges 93 This is coffer-dam work.
Hence coffer-dam v. trans., to provide with a coffer-dam.
1884Daily News 19 Dec. 5/7 Unless the pier is immediately coffer-dammed and the masonry repaired. |