Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/913

 Popular Science Moiit/ily

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��lessncss of a steam-roller. Guns would not be required to rout an enemy. An army would be as helpless in offering resistance as a flock of geese in the path of an automobile.

A Giant Thrce-Wlicelcd Armored Car

It is impossible witliin the limits of a short article to describe this machine which I have conccivetl in all its details. Picture to yourself, however, a self-propelled ma- chine, comprising three wheels and a lica\'ily armored body or car. There are two wheels, one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in diameter in front, and a single smaller steering-wheel in the rear. The entire structure is short, so

��that the turning radius will be small.

No doubt >ou are familiar with the mili- tary masts of our American battleships. They are latticed towers, not unlike cages. They are tiius constructed so that whole sections of the lattice work ma\' be shot away; but the remaining portions will still support the mast.

So 1 would build the wheels of my war machine. Why not armor them instead? They would weigh far too much — thousands of tons in fact. But the hub I would ar- mor — and heavih-. There the spokes would be concentrated so thickly that they might be shot away in great numbers. Besides, the hub and axle must be well protected. Therefore the '-enter of each wheel would be a mass ofarmor as thick as that of a battle cruiser.

The two front wheels of this war machine

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���It would dIow through a whole town, blotting it out of ex.stence as if it were a mere ant- heap. The wheels would be latticed, so that shot might pass through without destroying them

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