Who Invented Tanks
I found out that Richard Edgeworth invented the Caterpillar track in 1770. In the Crimean War some steam powered tractors based the caterpillar design was successful in mud. tanks weren’t invented until the arrival of the internal combustion engine, patented by Gottlieb Daimler in 1885.
In the USA the Holt Company built a tractor with caterpillar tracks that was used to move over difficult territory. It was suggested that this machine might be adapted for military use, those in positions of authority failed to see the significance of this new development.
In 1899 Frederick Simms made a design of what he called a motor-war car. This vehicle had a Daimler engine, a bulletproof shell and was armed with 2 maxim guns on revolving turrets. The British War Office didn’t like Simms' car and showed no interest in similar schemes.
By the outbreak of the First World War Richard Hornsby & Sons produced the Killen-Strait Armoured Tractor. The tracks consisted of a continuous series of steel links, joined together with steel pins. In June 1915 the Killen-Strait was tested out in front of Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George at Wormwood Scrubs. The machine successfully cut through barbed wire entanglements.
Another person influenced by Holt's Caterpillar Tractor was Colonel Ernest Swinton. With the help of Colonel Maurice Hankey, Swinton managed to persuade Winston Churchill, the navy minister, to set up a Landships Committee to look building a new war machine.
The Landships Committee and the newly-formed Inventions Committee, agreed with Swinton's proposal and commissioned Lieutenant W. G. Wilson of the Naval Air Service and William Tritton of William Foster & Co. Ltd. of Lincoln, to produce a small landship. Constructed in great secrecy, the machine was given the code-name tank by Swinton.
Nicknamed Little Willie, this prototype tank with its Daimler engine, had track frames 12 feet long, weighed 14 tons and could carry a crew of three, at speeds of just
In the USA the Holt Company built a tractor with caterpillar tracks that was used to move over difficult territory. It was suggested that this machine might be adapted for military use, those in positions of authority failed to see the significance of this new development.
In 1899 Frederick Simms made a design of what he called a motor-war car. This vehicle had a Daimler engine, a bulletproof shell and was armed with 2 maxim guns on revolving turrets. The British War Office didn’t like Simms' car and showed no interest in similar schemes.
By the outbreak of the First World War Richard Hornsby & Sons produced the Killen-Strait Armoured Tractor. The tracks consisted of a continuous series of steel links, joined together with steel pins. In June 1915 the Killen-Strait was tested out in front of Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George at Wormwood Scrubs. The machine successfully cut through barbed wire entanglements.
Another person influenced by Holt's Caterpillar Tractor was Colonel Ernest Swinton. With the help of Colonel Maurice Hankey, Swinton managed to persuade Winston Churchill, the navy minister, to set up a Landships Committee to look building a new war machine.
The Landships Committee and the newly-formed Inventions Committee, agreed with Swinton's proposal and commissioned Lieutenant W. G. Wilson of the Naval Air Service and William Tritton of William Foster & Co. Ltd. of Lincoln, to produce a small landship. Constructed in great secrecy, the machine was given the code-name tank by Swinton.
Nicknamed Little Willie, this prototype tank with its Daimler engine, had track frames 12 feet long, weighed 14 tons and could carry a crew of three, at speeds of just