Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/73

 Popular Science Monthly

��57

���The track-laying caterpillar motor-truck is vehicle, with the track-layer as the

��A New Type of Caterpillar Motor-Truck. It Can't Stick in the Mud

THE novel commercial vehicle shown in the accompanying illustration differs from other forms of cater- pillar tractors in that it has one caterpillar o r track-lay- ing unit in the rear and two wheels in front. It is substan- tially a three- wheeled vehi- cle with the track-layer as the third wheel. It has a much greater speed than a. conventional track-laying tractor. Fifteen miles an hour is within its capabilities.

It is especially intended for hauling trailers over rough country roads, but it can run over improved state highways by reason of the rubber tires on its front wheels.

The front, wheels are of steel with wide steel tires. The rubber tires are fitted in the center of the steel tire.

When running over good roads the front wheels are supported on the rubber tires, but when soft roads are encountered they sink into the ground. The wide steel tires then support the trac- tor and prevent it from being mired.

If any of the trailers should stick in the mud, a rope around the winch on the track-laying unit is employed to extricate them. Although this truck is equipped with the caterpillar unit it would not be possible for it to negotiate shell craters and deep trenches as readily as its predecessor, the British tank. Hence it is not designed for war service.

��three-wheeled third wheel

���The long-handled brushes and brooms were converted into individualities by black and white paint and shoe buttons for eyes. They required some clever carving too

��The Convalescent Soldiers Are Ingenious Toy Makers

THE war has indirectly been the cause of driving many erstwhile clerks and mechanics but now soldiers into the ranks of the toy makers. The invalid soldier finds not only employment for his en- forced idle hours but a certain amount of recreation as well in de- vising original toys.

In order to make a really successful toy, one must needs have a more or less intimate-knowledge of child-nature. The men who made the designs shown in the accompanying photographs must have had in mind a picture of some toddler leav- ing all the expensive toys that Santa Claus had left around the Christmas tree and going persistently back to mother's old dust-brush or broom.

The articles pictured, the work of maimed or blind soldiers, were exhibited at the Lyons Fair. Black and white paint and large shoe-buttons for eyes converted the long-handled brushes and brooms into in- dividualities, while clever carving in con- junction with paint and shoe-buttons and wooden wheels made stands for other types of brushes, which im- mediately became fierce and wonderful animals with accom- modating holes in their noses for strings. But the toys do not lose their utilitarian quality permanently. When they are no longer needed as play- things they may be re- turned to their hooks in the kitchen.

�� �