Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/915

 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.

�� �