Looks like the term is older than thought & was used in a U.S. of A. patent( US 226893 A) back in 1880 where WILLIAM H. VAN GIESON, OF WHITE WATER, VVISCONSIN sought protection.

BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARM:

"By referring to Fig. 6 we see that not only can the breech-joint of the gun be made tight by my device, but that any looseness under the gun on the WATER-TABLE is also compensated by the same operation. By turning tangent-screw G, the top point, 0, of the eccentric f, while moving forward a given distance for example, from c to d-will drop or descend through the very small proportionate space c' to d', which will be sufficient-to effectually tighten up the gun."

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US226893-1.png

Me thinks the hyphenated term water-table to be the correct form.

Has Google Patents changed as it seems odd/difficult to get to the actual sheets.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse