also a
casket or chest in which jewels or precious goods were kept, and, if of
large dimensions, clothes. The marriage coffers in Italy were of
exceptional richness in their carving and gilding and were sometimes
painted by great artists.

COFFERDAM, in engineering. To enable foundations (q.v.) to be laid in a
site which is under water, the engineer sometimes surrounds it with an
embankment or dam, known as a cofferdam, to form an enclosure from which
the water is excluded. Where the depth of water is small and the current
slight, simple clay dams may be used, but in general cofferdams consist
of two rows of piles, the space between which is packed with clay
puddle. The dam must be sufficiently strong to withstand the exterior
pressure to which it is exposed when the enclosed space is pumped dry.

COFFEYVILLE, a city of Montgomery county, Kansas, U.S.A., on the
Verdigris river, about 150 m. S. of Topeka and near the southern
boundary of the state. Pop. (1890) 2282; (1900) 4953, of whom 803 were
negroes; (1905) 13,196; (1910) 12,687. Coffeyville is served by the
Missouri Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Missouri, Kansas
& Texas, and the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways, and by
inter-urban electric railway to Independence. It is in the Kansas
natural-gas field, ships large quantities of grain, and has a large zinc
oxide smelter and a large oil refinery, and various manufactures,
including vitrified brick and tile, flour, lumber, chemicals, window
glass, bottles, pottery and straw boards. The municipality owns and
operates its water-works and electric lighting plant. Coffeyville, named
in honour of A. M. Coffey, who was a member of the first legislature of
the territory of Kansas, was founded in 1869, but in 1871 it was removed
about 1 m. from its original site, now known as "old town." It was
incorporated as a city of the third class in 1872 and received a new
charter in 1887. Coffeyville became a station on the Leavenworth,
Lawrence & Galveston railway (now part of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe), and for several years large numbers of cattle were driven here from
Indian Territory and Texas for shipment; in fact, the city's chief
importance was as a trade centre for the north part of Indian Territory
until natural gas was found here in large quantities in 1892.

COFFIN (from Lat. _cophinus_, Gr. [Greek: kophinos], a coffer, chest or
basket, but never meaning "coffin" in it