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Sidelock
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Fox 1914 advert:

"THE extension of the frame(water table) under the barrels is shorter than on any other guns."

So all you Fox owners step forward and call it what it is.

Like Mcintosh, I too believe the term originated from the use to water to make the flats plane. It also appears in Sears, Roebuck & Company adverts(typically in Railroad publications) circa 1905-1907.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

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Sidelock
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That settles it for me.

Thank you Raimey.



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Sidelock
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1898 Report of Commissioner of Labour - Shotgun efforts:
"102 - Milling Water Table & Lugs
103 - Trimming Water Tables "

Earliest I've noted. The government(insert any & all) is always correct?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

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Sidelock
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Raimey, sent you a PM.

Jay

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Sidelock
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Thanks Jay, I'll look.


Kind Regards,

Raimey
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Sidelock
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From John Taylor's "Shotgun Encyclopedia": "Water table--Another term for the bar of the action." Yet another case where we Yanks say one thing; our British cousins another. Or sometimes have very different meanings for the same word. "Knickers", for example.

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Sidelock
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Raimey, I think that is the quote I was thinking of. Thanks, hmmmmm 1914

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Sidelock
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Who really cares what you call it. We all know what we are talking about here.
Perhaps Water Table is an old world word, a veritable, venerable Gunmakers word...spoken over benches by Victorian gaslight, by those who made them....in use since file touched steel...
Let it be either:)
franc
I'd be interested in some of the English Gunsmiths opinion on this....& I'll side with my countrymen..
franc

Last edited by Franc Otte; 01/27/14 11:09 PM.
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Sidelock
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water table noun
: the highest underground level at which the rocks and soil in a particular area are completely wet with water

Full Definition of WATER TABLE

1
: a stringcourse or similar member when projecting so as to throw off water
2
: the upper limit of the portion of the ground wholly saturated with water

water table noun (Concise Encyclopedia)

Seasonal variations in groundwater levels.—© Merriam-Webster Inc.
Surface of a body of underground water below which the soil or rocks are permanently saturated with water. The water table separates the groundwater zone (zone of saturation) that lies below it from the zone of aeration that lies above it. The water table fluctuates both with the seasons and from year to year because it is affected by climatic variations and by the amount of precipitation used by vegetation. It also is affected by withdrawing excessive amounts of water from wells or by recharging them artificially. See also aquifer.

HTH

Dr.WtS

Last edited by Wonko the Sane; 01/27/14 11:34 PM.

Dr.WtS
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Sidelock
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And yet users of the term as an alternative to action flats are understood by those they're addressing. It's amazing, like a secret handshake or something!

Jay

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