tamping, vbl. n.
(ˈtæmpɪŋ)
[f. tamp v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb tamp: the plugging or filling up of a blast-hole above the charge; the packing of the part of a military mine nearest the charge with earth or other material.
| 1828 J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 301 The stoppage or tamping of a mine. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XVI. 303/1 The sand-bags used for tamping should not be filled up to the top. |
b. concr. The material used for this purpose.
| 1828 in Webster. 1843 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VI. 120/2 It would have found vent by blowing out the tamping. 1909 Installation News III. 63 The upper casting, to which the cable or tape is electrically connected by lead tamping. |
c. attrib. and
Comb., as
tamping material;
tamping-bar,
-iron,
= stemmer: see
quot. 1877;
tamping-machine: see
quot.;
tamping-plug, a plug or stopper used to block up a bore-hole.
| 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 292/1 Drawings of the jumpers, the *tamping bar, the needle, and the discharging reed. 1891 C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 75 It was pick and shovel and tamping bar day in and day out. |
| 1864 Webster, *Tamping-iron. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Tamping-iron, a tool, prudently made of copper, by which the tamping is wadded down upon the cartridge or charge in a hole, for blasting. |
| Ibid., *Tamping-machine.., a machine for packing clay or the material for artificial stone into a mold. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 836 Dry sand is sometimes used as a *tamping material. |
| 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Tamping-plug,..it usually consists of a cone with barbs, or of a set of wedge-shaped blocks, which jam by the pressure from beneath. |
| 1884 Mil. Engineering (ed. 3) I. ii. 116 Sandbags ready filled for *tamping purposes should be provided. |