The Yale expositor., 1916-12-21

ments for delivering blows he says.
"The essential difference between bat
ties of prehistoric times and those of
today lie in the manner of delivering
blows. Smokeless powder has merely
heightened the arm of the fighter. He
strikes and kills at distance of miles.
Because armies are still composed
essentially of many individuals light
ing ships may be more fittingly termed
war machines a battleship is Il real
machine. The men on board are mere
ly so many intelligences that control
the steam engine, the turrcts, the great
guns, and searchlights. But land war
fare is still waged, not by few ma
chimes, as on the sea, but by organized
millions of men.
"Why is there no land battleship,
something comparable with our own
Pennsylvania, something which will
concentrate within one volume the
striking power of an army?
Engineering Possibility.
"There is no good engineering rea-
son why an enormous wheeled struc-
ture heavily armored and capable Of
travelling at high speed, should not
wage the battles of the future. Tech
nically it is Il far easier task to de-
sign and build superdreadnaught
than a wheeled destroyer to run on
solid ground. The ocean is a vast
level expanse. There are no hills and
valleys. Waste is in the same den
sity everywhere. But land varies from
the hardest rock to the softest quag-
mire. Here we have the reason, why
we still oppose armies against each
other instead of machines.
"Undeniable as these difficulties are,
it seems to me that they could be over
come by boldly designing a machine
of such dimensions and of such en-
ergy that ii could travel over a country
road. A hill 90 feet high would be to
that machine what a siX-inch ridge of
clay would be to an automobile; Il
swamp would no more hinder its course
| than half a foot of mud would stop
a touring car. Even over rough inland
country it would rush more swiftly
than any touring car on poor road.
The impact of a heavy mass moving
with the velocity of an express train
would be irresistible Indeed, in its
speed would lie its destructive pos
sibilities. 1t could NOW down every
thing before it with the relentlessness
of n steam roller. Guns would not be
required to rOut an enemy. An army
would be as helpless in offering resist
ance as a flock of geese in the path of
an automobile.
Picture to yourself a self-propeiled
machine, comprising three wheels and
a heavily-armOred body or car. There
are two wheels, $50 to 200 feet in di
ameter, in front and a single smaller
steering wheel to the rear. The en-
tire structure is short so that the turn
ing radius wiA be small.
mo doubt you are familiar with the
military masts of our American bat
tleships. They are latticed towers no
unlike cages. They are thus construct
ed so that the whole sections of tn,
lattice work may be shot away; bu
the remaining portions will still sup
port the mast.
$50 l would build the wheels of m,
war machine. Why not armor then
instead? They would weigh too mucl
thousands of tons. But the hub
would armcr, and heavily. There tn
spOkes would be concentrated 81
thickly that they might be shot ava,
i'm great numbers and the wheel still
stand.
"The two front wheels of this wa
machine would have to be spaces
about 200 feet apart. They woul
have a tread about 20 feet wide.
would make them of steel in plate
four inches thick, bclted together 4
sections.
Car Comparatively Small.
"Since the machine is to destroy b
virtue of its inherent energy, and nc
by means of guns, IL would have
comparatively small cara car whic
would not rise above the tops of tn
( front wheels, which would be heavil
5 armored and which would serve pr
: marily as a housing for the engines
|, The crew would be small-not NOR
e than perhaps thirty men.
}, 81 arn fully aware that the problel
$ Of obtnining engines which will civ
q this war machine n speed of 100 mile
!, an hour is not easily solved. But
y thousands of horse power con be deve
|. oped by the engines of pitching an
J. rolling battleships, II is not unreasor