monkey board

n. a small or narrow elevated platform on which a person stands (to operate a vehicle or machinery, or to perform other work). Subjects: English, Petroleum, Colloquial

Editorial Note: While early in its history monkey board referred to a conductor’s place on wheeled vehicles such as buses, trams, and trolleys, it is now in common use on oil-drilling platforms and also appears in other industries. More or less synonymous terms, often used in a nautical context, include monkey bridge, monkey island, flying bridge, and flying gangway.

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Citations: 1836 London Times (Sept. 23) (in Guildhall) p. 4: He pursued the poling system down Ludgate-hill, and there he came so close that the pole struck complainant’s legs, knocked him off the “monkey board,“ or conductor’s stand, and while he was lying on the the ground bawled out that it served him right. 1856 James Parton Parodies and Burlesques (New York City) p. 487: Thy driver, like Nimshi’s son—/Driveth/Furiously!/And the cad upon the monkey-board/The monkey-board behind/Scorneth the drag—but goes/Downhill like mad. 1871 James Greenwood New York Times (Jan. 29) “The London Street Boys”: The eager, quick-eyed, ragged-headed sprite, who, with the agility of a monkey or a London sparrow, skips about stand-still omnibuses, this side, that side, and hopping on and off the step behind, ever in danger of a kick from the conductor on his monkey board. 1898 Trenton Evening Times (N.J.) (July 15) “The Good Old Times” p. 7: “Young man,“ continued the pompous gentleman, “I have risen from the monkey board. How? By beiing careful. When I was young, I made money by saving bus fares.“ 1921 Wellsboro Gazette (Penn.) (Jan. 27) “Words Made By Animals” p. 7: The step of a bus on which the conductor stands is known as the monkey-board. 1945 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) (July 24) “Two Men Injured In Oil Field Accident” (in Raymondville) p. 1: The men were injured when a finger came out of a monkey board knocking both men down and falling across them. 1992 Karl Laiho @ Kuwait Toronto Star (Can.) (June 22) “The Tyranny of the Should” p. D3: Everything was icy and visibility was restricted to the bottom of the derrick—far below the monkey board, the little platform where I was to work. 1992 Leon Hale Houston Chronicle (Texas) (Dec. 1) “C.T. taught me how to feel sins” p. A13: I had seen C.T. throw poultry off the windmill before, and although this practice was forbidden by his stern father, C.T. counted it a considerable thrill. Sometimes he caught white leghorn pullets and pitched them off the monkey board just below the mill blades, and they’d fly 200 feet or more. 1993 Electrical World (May 1) “Keep tools, tasks straight: Learn the lingo” vol. 207, no. 5, p. 42: The following is a sampling of terms from Tampa Electric’s slang dictionary.… Monkey board—A non-insulated aerial platform. 2004 Susan Mansfield The Scotsman (Scotland) (Nov. 16) “Taking oil painting to a whole new platform”: She also started to learn the offshore patois used to describe the different parts of the platform: the dog house, the monkey board, the rat hole, the cat walk.

Posted 16 Nov 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

My grandfather, Ether S. Moore, invented the monkey board for the oil derrick.. After his passing in 1998 at age 92, my dad gave each of us, his grand kids, a few of his business cards. Ether ( the E is short like Ed), grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, worked in the oil fields as a young man. He married the girl down the road and moved to S. Calif. as a newlywed.He owned and operated a successful garage door business with my dad.. “Papa” taught us the value of hard work, to be honest and to love unconditionally..

by Linda (Moore) Wilkes 23 Oct 06, 0701 GMT