Here's a heavyweight steam tractor outfitted for use on soft ground. The wheels are double width (even the wagons), fitted with pivoting plank-like treads, restrained by steel cables. The system was devised by Australian Frank Botrill and must have functioned on some level, but it sure looks ungainly!
4 mph over some soupy gushy ground, the wet slapping and squishy sounds of the planks along with all the different rhythmic rigamarole goings-on of the steam engine, wood clunking and furnace doors clanking. poking and prodding. can you imagine the orchestra of sound.
ReplyDeleteExactly what I was thinking, a giant is walking in the swamp!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the science fiction story "The Land Ironclads" written by H. G. Wells in 1903 about a future war.
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