Popular Science Monthly 



901 



would have to be spaced about tlircc luin- 

 dred feci apart. They would liase a tread 

 about twenty feet wide, — in other words, 

 about as wide as an ordinary' room. I 

 would make them of steel plates four 

 inches tliick, bolted together in sections. 



Since the machine is to destroy b>- virtue 

 of its inherent energy and not by means 

 of guns, it would have a comparati\'ely 

 small car — a car which would not rise 

 above the tops of the front wheels, which 

 would be hea\'ily armored, and which 

 would ser\-e primarily as a housing for the 

 engines. The crew would be small — not 

 more than i)erhaps thirty men. 



I am fully aware that the problem of 

 obtaining engines which will gi\e this war 

 machine a speed of one hundred miles an 

 hour is not easily solved. But if thousands 

 of horsepower can be developed b\' the 

 engines of pitching and rolling battleships 

 it is not unreasonable to suppose that 

 competent engineers can be found to design 

 and build steam engines of twenty thousand 

 horsepower, fed by oil-fired boilers. 



Once more let me state that the front 

 wheels are one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred feet in diameter. Hence, the>- 

 would make less than fifteen turns to the 

 mile. 



How Shocks Would Be Absorbed 



That simplifies the matter of absorbing 

 shocks. If a racing automobile on a fine 

 track leaps int<} the air when it strikes even 

 a pebble, simph" because the spring sus- 

 pension has not time to respond to the 

 ~lic)ck, it is ob\ioiis that the huge structure 

 tliat 1 ha\'e in mind must be pro\ided with 

 inordinately strong yet sufiicienth' sensitive 

 siiock-absorbers. The shock that would be 

 experienced in knocking down a small 

 factory building, would certainly not be as 

 great as the shock that- must be absorbed 

 as a modern fifteen-inch naval gun suddenK" 

 recoils after discharge. If cylinders filled 

 with oil can check the terrific recoil of a 

 big gun, the\- can also act as shock-absorb- 

 ers on a land war machine. .-Xiid so the\- 

 can be imagined on the machine — huge 

 cylinders, three feet in diameter, filled with 

 oil which would resist the pressure of 

 pistons on the axle. 



The weight of the entire structure would 

 be probably five thousand tons. Since the 

 machine is to l)atter down everN-thing in its 

 path, there are to be suspended from the 

 front of the machine a series of hea\-y 

 weights, each weighing several tons. The 

 weights may be raised or lowered. When 



dropped into position their impact at high 

 speed would level everything before them. 



Oiily Big Guns Could Slop the Machine 



Terrible as this contrivance would be, it 

 would not be able to withstand bombard- 

 ment by i6-inch Skoda or Krupp guns. It 

 is not intended for that. ()rdinar\- field 

 artillery will not stop it. Its sole purpose 

 is to move up and down an enemy's coun- 

 try, to make a whole region untenable, to 

 crush down resistance offered by ordinary 

 field fortifications. Mines will be planted 

 to blow up the destroyer. Mines do not 

 prevent a battleship from venturing upon 

 the sea. Moreover, the maneu\ering power 

 of the land war machine will be such that 

 it may change its course wilfully with such 

 rapidity that a whole countryside would 

 have to be blown up in order to affect it. 



Imagine yourself standing at one front 

 wheel of this machine. Comparatively you 

 would be no bigger than a baby standing 

 beside the driving wheel of a passenger 

 locomotive. Far above you would be the 

 maze of spokes constituting the latticed 

 wheel. Perched mitlwa\- between the two 

 gigantic front wheels, as tall as many a 

 moderate sized otifice building, would be the 

 ship-shaped armored car for the engines 

 and the crew. You reach it b>- means of an 

 elevator resembling that in which miners 

 rise from deep coal mines. Once in the car, 

 you might fancy yourself in the engine 

 room of a ship; there is no ditTerence so far 

 as general appearances go. With the com- 

 mander you step into the conning-tower — 

 a circular, amiorcd chamber well forward, 

 dominating the entire landscape. 



The commander gives a signal. The 

 machine moves. It gains headway. Soon 

 it travels at express-train speed. A mile 

 ahead is a densely wooded park. In a min- 

 ute the machine reaches it. Does it stop or 

 swerve? It plunges on. Trees are crunched 

 as if they are mere weeds. You look back 

 in thewakeof the machine. It is as if a storm 

 had laid low every poplar and elm. And yet 

 the machine is not even scratched. An 

 enemy village, occupied by enem\- soldiers 

 lies in front. The machine speeds on toward 

 it. It reaches them. Houses are battered 

 down as if they were made of paper. Wher- 

 e\'er the weights that dangle down in front 

 strike, where\'er the wheels mo\e, there is 

 a rending and a crushing. And so, e\'ery- 

 thing is le\-eled before the war machine — 

 walls of earth or masonrj-, houses big and 

 little, railway stations and signal bridges. 



