coffer-dam

He stood full six feet in height, with noble shoulders, and a chest like a coffer-dam.

Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

For instance, in Maryland, a coffer-dam, excavated to a depth of 30 ft. in silt and water, had the bottom shoved in 2 ft., in spite of the fact that the waling pieces were 5 ft. apart vertically at the top and 3 ft. at the bottom, and were braced with 12 by 12-in. timbers, every 7 ft. horizontally.

Pressure, Resistance, and Stability of Earth American Society of Civil Engineers: Transactions, Paper No. 1174, Volume LXX, December 1910 J. C. Meem

He liked to lie flat on the coffer-dam to read, with a row of tin letter-files under his head for a rest, the electric bulb and its shade so adjusted as to throw all the light on the page of his book.

Wide Courses 1912

Throughout all the story Dalton had been sitting atop of the coffer-dam, hands with flat palms pressing down, and feet hanging, with heels drumming against the coffer-dam sides.

Wide Courses 1912

The wall includes an outer wall built as a coffer-dam, a brick wall, a coat of cement, and a wall proper, a little over a yard thick.

The Phantom of the Opera 1911

And that happened to be in the middle of the stream opposite the trestle on the masonry of the middle pier, now two feet above the coffer-dam.

The U. P. Trail Zane Grey 1905

In the middle of the stream stood a coffer-dam in course of building, and near it another that had collapsed.

The U. P. Trail Zane Grey 1905

However, the difficulty is being got over by the construction of a coffer-dam -- at a cost of £30,000.

The Sequel What the Great War will mean to Australia 1900

Anyhow, at time of writing the coffer-dam is being constructed.

The Sequel What the Great War will mean to Australia 1900

The company possesses a strip of land extending two miles along the shore; and in excavating the tunnel a coffer-dam was made with the extracted rock, to keep the river from flooding the works.

The Story of Electricity John Munro 1889