The Romance of War Inventions / A Description of Warships, Guns, Tanks, Rifles, Bombs, and Other Instruments and Munitions of Warfare, How They Were Invented & How They Are Employed

by Thomas W. Corbin

The wheels actually turned by the power of the engine are the chain-wheels, and their action is such as to keep on laying down and then taking up again two broad firm tracks along which, at the same time, they keep propelling the other wheels which carry the weight above. The effect, really, is just as if the machine had a pair of driving wheels two feet wide and of enormous diameter, of such diameter, in fact, that the part in contact with the ground is almost flat. Thus there is always a broad bearing surface to prevent sinking in soft earth, while the tooth-like shape of the links gives a firm hold even under very adverse conditions.

This form of construction has been used for some few years now under the name of "caterpillar" or

"centipede" traction. A glance at the picture will explain those names, particularly if the chain-driven part of the vehicle be imagined to be a little longer than it is in the particular machine shown.

The idea of armouring a vehicle with bullet-proof plates is also a fairly old conception. Armoured trains were used again and again during the South African War, and armoured motor-cars became familiar to most people. In the case of cars, however, the armour could only be very light and the guns carried were limited practically to a single machine-gun and some rifles. Moreover, the operations of a car are very largely confined to such places as are blessed with good roads or smooth plains. An armoured car of the older type would have cut a poor figure amid the shell-holes and mine-craters of Northern France. It would have had to keep to the roads and so it was little used.

But the idea of an armoured vehicle was good and a good idea is never entirely lost. Sooner or later some genius puts it to good use. Thus the idea of an armoured vehicle came to be associated with the idea represented in the centipede tractor and the result was the tank.

Why not armour a large centipede, said someone? Make it very big and strong. It will trample down the barb-wire entanglements as if they were grass. If made long enough and rightly balanced it will pass over the trenches like a moving bridge. Nothing but a direct hit from a heavy gun will do it much harm. For, observe, the mechanism can be entirely covered up, all the vital parts can be well protected, and the chain tracks can be so strong as to be almost undamageable.

By permission of Messrs. Foster and Co.

The Parent of the Tank.