Object data
wood, metal and paint
model: height 35 cm × width 78 cm × depth 32 cm
packaging capsule: height 46.5 cm × width 85 cm × depth 39 cm
anonymous
Model of a Caisson
Netherlands, Netherlands, c. 1802
Inscriptions
- label, top centre: 14 former inventory label
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-14
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Wooden test model of a double-keeled caisson for a dry dock, painted white with draught marks in black.
The execution is rather crude and without much detail. The square hole in the deck probably served to fill the model with water. The deck can be removed and is weighted with four metal plates on the inside.
Pieter Glavimans (1755-1820) made several designs of caissons for the dry dock at Hellevoetsluis from 1801 to 1804.1 Caissons were used in France but were not very stable, they had to be moved in and out of their bed by means of a floating sheer. Glavimans solved this stability problem after experimenting with this model.2
Literature
J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 14; K. van der Pols, De ontwikkeling van het wateropvoerwerktuig in Nederland 1770-1870, Delft 1984, p. 33; R.M. Haubourdin et al., De physique existentie dezes lands. Jan Blanken, inspecteur-generaal van de waterstaat (1755-1838), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1987, p. 181, no. 65; G.J. Arends, ‘De ontwikkeling van sluisdeuren in Nederland’, Erfgoed van Industrie en Techniek 3 (1994), no. 2, pp. 73-89; H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, p. 37
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Caisson, Netherlands, c. 1802', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.242739
(accessed 5 January 2025 23:53:29).