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Monday, After the rain I need small versions

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Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#1

Monday, After the rain I need small versions

What is the name of the device? Formerly made of wood saplings or reeds woven together like giant baskets and filled with earth and or sand, these devices were made as quick but effective fortifications to protect soldiers. Placed well they could stop, redirect, or slow down charging cavalry. Even from medieval times in civil applications they were also used as devices to hold back moving sand and dirt, build dams and docks. Today their modern counterpart is made of wire mesh and may be left open or lined with a strong material and used for exactly the same purpose. Largely replacing sandbags where there is equipment to move and fill these devices they now surround military compounds, latrines, and buildings to limit collateral mortar damage. Name the device and a bonus if you can name the modern company who reinvented it in the 1990s.

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#2

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

I'm probably wrong here but a patriotic lyric comes to mind. Or on the other hand my answer might just be bull.

Tom

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#3

Not rolling along but right idea

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#4

I'm thinking of

An old wild foods guy Euell.... what was his name

glc

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#5

Not exactly

old "reminds me of old Hickory nuts" cereal spokesperson. but I get that you got it.

Re: Monday, After the rain I need small versions

#6

Monday answer

Answer is gabion(from Italian gabbione meaning big cage). Gary from Oregon gets the gold star.

Also called the HESCO barrier for the British Company who re-invented the device in the 1980s or 90s. For military applications these are about 4�6� high x 3�6� square.

Filled with sand 24� thick will stop a bullet and most shell fragments, 5 feet of barrier is needed for a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) and 4 feet for a typical car bomb.

Old fashioned sandbags are filled at a rate of twenty bags an hour with lots of cut hands from errant shovels. Complete barriers (using a front loader) take fewer hours to build and reduce by ten times the time needed to build and place them. Inside a military camp they are used to compartmentalize areas.

In Civil applications rocks and/or sand in metal cages stacked and staggered into a hill help prevent erosion. They are used for flood control when filled with sand using polypropylene fabric on the sides.

Other names are: Hesco bastion, Concertainer, see www.hesco.com out of Louisiana. A search under gabion on any search engine will find applications and specifications galore.

As to the other answers I believe Tom referred to the other definition of caissons in his answer which is also the term used to keep an area like that surrounding a bridge pier dry during construction. While a protective barrier caisson didn't fit the description. And the name Gary (Oregon) suggested was Euell Gibbons who used to speak for Grape Nuts Flakes. If I'm wrong they will explain.

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