Object data
wood and brass
model: height 18 cm × width 38.8 cm × depth 15.7 cm
packaging capsule: height 26 cm × width 45 cm × depth 21 cm
anonymous, anonymous, after Antoine Groignard
Netherlands, France, France, c. 1800
wood and brass
model: height 18 cm × width 38.8 cm × depth 15.7 cm
packaging capsule: height 26 cm × width 45 cm × depth 21 cm
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-5
Copyright: Public domain
Wooden frame model of a double-keeled caisson for a dry dock.
One side of the caisson is finished, the other side is open. The caisson has three decks and is divided into two compartments lengthwise. On the closed side there are two small floodgates, the valves are missing. There are sockets for one pump only on either side. This model is very similar to model NG-MC-991 and it fits in to its bed.
This caisson was invented by the French engineer Antoine Groignard (1727-1799) and was used for the first time at the dry dock in Toulon in 1778.1 Although caissons were by no means a novelty at the time, Groignard’s design introduced some major improvements.2
A similar model is in the collection of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem.3
Scale unknown.
J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 5; G.l’E. Turner, Van Marum’s Scientific Instruments in Teyler’s Museum, in E. Lefebvre and J.G. de Bruijn (eds.), Martinus van Marum: Life and Work, 6 vols., vol. 2, Leiden 1973, pp. 127-401, no. 76
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous or anonymous, Model of a Caisson, Netherlands, c. 1800', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.242730
(accessed 27 December 2024 14:46:21).