Ford Tank
Item
-
Title (Dublin Core)
-
Ford Tank
-
Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
-
Ford's Artificial Armored Horse. The new two-man tank designed to take the place of cavalry
-
extracted text (Extract Text)
-
CAVALRY is almost as extinct as
the Dodo or the Mammoth. The
machine gun, barbed wire, shells
that bury themselves twenty feet in the
ground and then explode are responsible
for the passing of the trooper. Horses
cannot be used to
advantage in shell-
pitted territory and
against a hail of ma-
chine gun bullets. No
adequate method has
been devised up to
the present time to
protect the horses
against rifle and ma-
chine gun bullets,
shell splinters and
shrapnel. And so
military men have
had to invent an
artificial armor-pro-
tected horse—the two-man tank, which 1s
light, mobile, fast as a horse, and which
wriggles in and out of shell craters with
astonishing ease.
The two-man tank has been linked up
with the name of Ford because it is
proposed to use Ford engines to supply its
power. It is the invention of C. H. Mar-
tin of Springfield, Mass., who has already
constructed three of the units with the
exception of the armor.
The first of the two-man tanks to be
seen 1n public was shown re-
cently in Springfield, Mass.
In the accompanying pic-
ture it stands by the side of
one of the British tanks.
It is about one-half the
length of the big tank and
consists of a Ford power-
plant mounted on a sub-
frame. The driving sprocket
is at the rear end, and on
each side there is a big
tread wheel in the center,
with two smaller idlers in
front and two in the rear.
The armor of this small
tank weighs about 1200
pounds. At the present time no definite
description can be given of the armor,
but it is stated that each tank will
carry two machine guns and will be able
to travel at a speed of twelve miles an
hour over fairly smooth ground and with
half that speed over
shell-scarred terrain.
It is claimed in
favor of the small
tanks that, because
of their lesser weight
they can go to places
which the big tanks
could not reach. It
is also argued that a
larger number of
small tanks can do
more damage than
a smaller number of
large tanks and at
smaller expense. The
armor of these two-man tanks 1s intended
to deflect machine-gun-fire. Their speed
will make it possible to use them in
place of cavalry for quick dashes into
the enemy’s country.
It has been rumored that these tanks
will be more like giant wheels than
the familiar elongated British tanks.
Hence they may resemble the tank
shown in the accompanying sketch, in
which the caterpillar treads are run
completely around the circumference of
the wheel, the inner portion of the wheel
being armored and remaining stationary.
Another possibility is that the new
tanks will be patterned after the latest
French tanks in which the caterpillar
treads extend along the bottom only and
are partly
protected
by the side
armor. In
that case the
front and
rear ends will
be beveled
to give the
machine
gunner and
the operator
a clear view
for sighting
their guns.
In either:
case the tank
willbe
steered by a
modified
Ford control
to permit of stopping and starting either
tread at will. If the French type of
armoring is used, the tread could be ar-
ranged as shown in one of the pictures.
The tank as a war machine is, like so
many other new inventions, still in an
experimental state. But it has proved
itself so useful already that it will
undoubtedly be made a part of the
equipment of every army, although its
structure may vary.
-
Language (Dublin Core)
-
eng
-
Date Issued (Dublin Core)
-
1918-08
-
pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
-
250-251
-
Rights (Dublin Core)
-
Public Domain (Google digitized)
-
Archived by (Dublin Core)
-
Filippo Valle
-
Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 93, n. 2, 1918
