Glossary of Forgotten Engineering Terms

Fleet

When used with respect to jack screws, refers to the act of retracting a jack to perform another lift in the same position. Blocking, or another jack are used to support the load while the jack is being retracted. Once the jack has been fully retracted, blocking is inserted below or above the jack to allow for another lifting cycle.

Examples

The night shift was utilized to fleet the screws, block up, and add concrete to the tops of the piers each night (Allaire 829).

Each man operated twenty-thirty jacks. When these had been turned up twelve inches everyone turned to “fleet-ing up” the jacks, that is, resetting them on more piling for the next trick (Lee 76).

References

Allaire, Alexander. “The Failure and Righting of a Million-Bushel Grain Elevator.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. 80, no. 1, 1916, pp. 799–832., https://doi.org/10.1061/taceat.0002724.

Lee, Oliver Justin. “Moving the Dearborn Observatory.” Popular Astronomy, Feb. 1941, pp. 75–78.