#86378
11/10/2002 2:26 AM
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 8
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 8 |
I was speaking with my Father about his Army days. Old Army. How old - Horses.
He described horses pulling the caisson, a wagon with ammunition for the artillery pieces. (The caissons go rolling along...)
Why is this also the term for an open bottomed apparatus used for underwater excavation?
Thanx
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#86379
11/10/2002 4:27 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Well, caisson is from Old French, meaning large box, so I suppose that is why the term came to mean both a structure used underwater and a horse-drawn vehicle used to draw cannon and ammunition. Caisson is also defined as a large box open on one side and the top, designed to fit against the side of a ship and used for underwater repair, as a floating structure used to close off a dock or canal, and as a device used to raise sucken objects. It seems that they are all just big boxes. More on the etymology: the Old French is an alteration of casson, from Italian cassone, augmentative of cassa, box, from Latin capsal.
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#86380
11/10/2002 3:16 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
caisson
n.
5Fr < It cassone < cassa, a chest < L capsa, a box, CASE26
1 a chest for holding ammunition
2 a two-wheeled wagon for transporting ammunition
3 a watertight enclosure inside which underwater construction work can be done
4 a watertight box for raising sunken ships: after the box is sunk and attached, the water is forced out of it so that it floats
5 a hollow, boat-shaped box, used as a floodgate at a dock or basin
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#86381
11/10/2002 3:19 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
For State funerals the coffin is often carried on a caisson usually pulled by horses.
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#86382
11/10/2002 5:42 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Sparteye: whoa, you go, girl! [impressed]
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#86383
11/10/2002 9:10 PM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
"and as a device used to raise sucken objects."
Ahhhh. Vampire caissons.
Tim didn't pass on my IM message?
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#86384
11/11/2002 2:15 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Actually, I don't need any caisson to raise sucken objects. 
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#86385
11/11/2002 2:30 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Caisson disease used to be a serious complication in workers before it was learned that
they had to be slowly decompressed, or bubbles could form in blood and block small
capillaries causing serious nerve damage.
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#86386
11/11/2002 8:50 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Commonly known as "the bends" because of the sufferer's contortions due to muscle cramps.
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#86387
11/11/2002 2:12 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
the first italian meaning I thought of
the cassa del tesoro = the wooden cointeiner for gold and jewelry (stolen by pirates)
tesoro is treasure
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#86388
11/11/2002 2:44 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
the caissons' used under water,look like barges, that have been turn over. a flat bottomed water tight wooden structure.
it would have a opening, with a stair or ladder shaft.
the top would be weighted with rocks, to sink the caisson, and it would come to rest at the bottom of a river or under water place and workers could climb down the shaft into the caisson.
there was some sort of an air lock -- think about it,if you take a glass, turn it up side down, you can sink it bottom end down, and the air will stay in the glass, but if put in a straw, An opening to the surface, the water will rush in,
caisson did have leaks like this too, and workers risked being drowned as well as the bends.
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