Inventions of the Great War

a

can out-run a locomotive. A bicyclist can soon tire out the hardiest of

that owe their very existence to the fact that they can run fast. Why hasn't nature put them on wheels so that when their enemy appears

ighway or a steel track. They are absolutely helpless when they are obliged to travel over rough country. No wheeled ve

he machines to travel upon, and it is necessary to have some sort

and the machine would proceed step by step. It could travel over comparatively rough ground, and could actually walk up a flight of stairs. We have a very curious walking-machine in this country. It is a big dr

tented, none of them has amounted to very much. Clearly, n

they progressed, new links of the track were laid down before them and the links they had passed over were picked up behind them. A number of inventors worked on this idea, but one man in particular, Benjamin Holt, of Peoria, Illinois, brought the invention to a high state of perfection. He arranged a series of wheels along the

was easily steered; in fact, it could turn around in its own length by traveling forward on one of its chains, or traction-belts, and backward on the other. The machine was particularly adapted to travel on soft or plowed ground, because the broad traction-belts gave it a very wide bearing and spread its weight over a

*

t of the never-ending competition between arms and armor. As the weapons of offense developed from stone to spear, to arrow, to arquebus, the wooden plank developed into a shield of brass and then of steel; and then, since

rong enough to ward off the rifle-bullet and at the same time light enough for a man to wear. The struggl

expect. But with the machine-gun there is not this waste of ammunition, because it fires a stream of bullets, the effect of which can readily be determined by the man who operates the volley. The difference between the machine-gun fire and rifle fire is something like the difference between hitting a tin can with a stone or with a stream of water. It is no easy matter to score a hit with the stone; but any one can train a garden hose on the

rwood &

mbing out of a T

uns, and they developed the science of using them with telling effect. And so, when the recent great war suddenly broke out, they surprised the world with the countless number of machine-guns they possessed and the efficient use to which they put them. Thousands of British soldiers in the early days of the war fell victims to these deat

rwood &

no Barrier to

lustrati

was very heavy

difficult to search them out. Only by long-continued bombardment was it possible to destroy them and tear away the barbed wire sufficiently to p

nter-attack. Furthermore, the Germans learned to conceal their machine-guns in dugouts twenty or thirty feet underground, where they were safe from

ground of No Man's Land. The Russians tried a big steel shield mounted on wheels, which a squad of soldiers would push ahead of them, but their plan failed because the wheels would get stuck in shell-holes. A one-man shield on wheels was tried by the British. Under its

*

peculiar machine, and immediately realized the advantages of an armored tractor for battle over torn ground. But in the first few months of the war that ensued, this idea was forgotten, until the effectiveness of the machine-gun and the necessity for overcoming it recalled the matter to his mind. At his suggestion a caterpillar tractor was procured, and the military engineers set themselve

iser" or "land-ship"; but it was feared that this very name would give a clue to spies, and so any descriptive name was forbidden. Many of the parts consisted of rolled steel plates which might readily be used in building up vessels to hold water or gasolene; and to give the impression that such vessels were being constructed the name "tank" was adopted. The ne

t of the morning mists, the German fighters were taken completely by surprise. Two days before, their airmen had noticed some peculiar mach

ike thread. The big brutes marched up and down the lines of wire, treading them down into the ground and clearing the way for the infantry. Even trees were no barrier to these tanks. Of course they did not attack large ones, but the smallish trees were simply broken down before their onslaughts. As for concrete emplacements

following in the wake of the bullet-proof tank were protected from the shots of the enemy and were ready to attack him with bayonets when the time was ripe. But the tanks also furnished an indirect protection for the troops. It was not necessary for th

ng the tractor belt confined to the wheels instead of running over the entire body of the tank. It was more blunt than the British and was provided at the forward end with a steel cutting-edge, which adapted it to break its way through wire entanglements.

rally, ventilation is poor and the fumes and gases that accumulate are most annoying, to say the lea

ch a slow traveler that the enemy did not find it a very difficult task to hit it with a rapid-fire gun if the gunner could see his target. And so the Germans ordered up their guns to the front line

rwood &

Tank that can travel at a s

rwood &

High-Speed

behind. When the French finally did capture one of the German tanks, which had fallen into a quarry, it proved to be a poor imitation. It was an ugly-looking affair, very heavy and cumbersome. Owing to the scarcity of materials for producing high-grade armor, it had to make up in thickness of plating what

"Automotiv

of the interior with the locations of the most importa

s an ordinary man can run. "Whippets," the British called them, because they were like the speedy little dogs of that name. They carried but two men, one to guide the tank and the other to operate the machine-gun. The French, too, built a light "mosquito" tank, which was even sma

unners were ordered to fight to the very end. They looked for no mercy and expected no help. Had it not been for the l

army to come out with something better than anything produced by our allies. We did turn out a number of heavy machines patterned after the original British tank, with armor that could stand up against heavy fire, and we also prod