898 



pDpiihir Science Monthly 



syhania, something wliich will concen- 

 trate within one volume the striking 

 power of an army? 



Why Not a Battleship On Land ? 



There is no good engineering reason why 

 an enormous wheeled structure, heavily 

 armored and capable of tra\eling at high 

 speed should not wage the battles of the 

 future. Technicalh, it is a far easier task 

 to design and build a super-dreadnought 

 than a wheeled destroyer to run on solid 

 ground. The ocean is a vast, level expanse. 

 There are no hills and valleys. Water is 

 the same in density everywhere. But land 

 varies from the hardest rock to the softest 

 quagrnire. Here we have the reason 

 wh>' we still oppose armies against 

 each other instead of machines. 



Undeniable as these difficulties 

 are, it seems to me that they 

 could be overcome by boldly 

 designing a machine of such 

 dimensions and of such 

 energy- that it could 

 travel over ordi 



land much as an automobile travels over a 

 countr>' road. A hill fift\- feet high would be 

 to that machine what a si.\-inch ridge of clay 

 would be to an automobile; a swamp would 

 no more hinder its course than half a foot of 

 nuid would stop a touring car. Its speed 

 would be at least one hundred miles an 

 hour on the long, level, sandy beaches 

 along our coasts. And e\en over rough 

 inland country- it would rush far more 

 swiftly than any touring car on a poor road. 

 Indeed, in its speed would lie its destruc- 

 tive possibilities. The impact of a heaxy 

 mass moving with the velocity of an express 

 train would be irresistible. It could mow 

 down everything before it with the relent- 



I nr nii.cliinr j.r.iiK)M:il by Mr. Slumiiiii woiiKl Ik- hicmsI.:.. 'A ilh if. front wlicrls nir.isuring 

 200 feci in (Jiumclcr, and the wciBl'ts iiKK''ccntine niuny tons dangling down in front from chains, 



