Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1916-09-21
STRANGE WAR CRAFT
COMES FROM PEORIA
CATERPILLAR TRACTORS THAT
DEFY ALL OBSTACLES NOW
USED BY BRITISH
Other Nations Buyers-NIanufact
Describes Land Dreadnaught
Used In Europe

Washington, Sept lo.-The British
tanks the armored motor cars used
in recent assaults on German trench
es in northern France so successfully
as to attract worldwide attention,
were built for the most part in Peoria,
Ill.,, in the form OF caterpillar tractors
designed many years before the war
began to meet some of the difficult
problems of modern farming.
Except for their armor, their ma
chine guns and their crews, thousands
like them are in use today in the
United States, in blowing, digging
bitches and ether labors less heroic
than war.
U. S. Army TO Be Equipped
The United States army will b.
cars equal in power and effectiveness
to those now in use by the British
on the French war front.
The ordnance bureau of the War
Department is having built such cars.
secret by the army men.
General Hugh L. Scott, chief of the
army staff, admitted this much to-
gress on the work of building the
cars, whether any had been COM
pleted and were being tried out by
the army experts, or where the parts
for the cars were being made.
NJ. M. Baker, vice president of the
Holt Manufacturing Company, ex-
planned here today that It was ma
Chimes made by his company at its
Peoria plant that had hurdied German
trenches, walked through forests and
crawled over shell craters in the face.
Of intense gun fire.
Germany Purchaser, Too
eve have sold about 1000 cater
pillar tractors to the British govern
ment," said Mr.. Baker. Eve have
had nothing to do with putting armor
on them or placing machine guns, but
some of our men at Tldershot, Eng
land, recently were notified that the
British government intended to ar
NOR some Of the tractors and use
them for work other than the usual
towing of big guns.
Germany had some of these trac-
tors before the war began, and, al
though I do not understand just how
it occurred, I believe she may have
got others since then. We have sent
some to France and some in Russia
$50 far as l know, up until the re-
cent appearance of the motor cars
the tractors were used only to tow
big guns. l understood that Germany
used about forty of them in this,
work before Liege early in the war;,
and recent photographs show that
the British are using some of them
now for the same purpose"
Act Like Juggernaut
Mr.. Baker said he did not knows
how many of the 1000 tractors sent
to England had been armored and
put in service as land battleships, nor
did he know what equipment the
British war office had placed upon
cars to be used in this work.
at is true," said Mr.. Baker, chat
these tractors can go ahead over al
most anything or through almost
anything. They can straddIe a..
trench, 60 through swamp, roll over
logs or climb through small cratersi
like car Of Juggernaut 1t looks
uncanny to see them crawl alone the
ground, just like huge caterpillar.
In thick forest if they encountered
trees they could not brush out Of
their way, they could easily be used
to uproot them and clear their own
paths"
Garry Own Tracks
Mr.. Baker said the tractors sent to
England weigh about $4,000 pounds
each, develop 120 horsepower and are
built of steel. The caterpillar feature,
be explained, is Of the utmost impor-
tance. Speaking broadly, the tractor
crawls on two belts, with corrugated
surfaces on either side of the body.
The corrugated surface is on the
ground. On the inside of the belts,
on each side Of the body, are two lines
Of steel rails. making four lines in
all. These rails are in short sections,
jointed and operate over a coeged
that actually lays them
down with their belt attachment as
the tractor moves ahead and picks
them up again, so that the car runs
On it's own self-made track contin-
lously.
Machine Easy 10 Turn
The short joints in the rails make
It easy to turn to right or left. The
oodN is supported by trucks with five
wheels, something like small railroad
srucks. These wheels never touch
The ground, but run upon the steel
rails. In the ordinary tractor about
seven feet of belt and rails is on the
ground at one time.
Mr. Baker said that the machine
would bridge any trench that was:
not wider than the length Of the track
t laid on the ground at one time. The
bow" might hit the far side of the:
french far below the top, and the
stern would undoubtedly sink a
title, but the tenacity of the tractor,
1e declared, would enable it to go
ahead and climb out
The width of track used on the ma
,hines sent to England, Mr.. Baker
said, was twenty-four inches. He
declared that the ground pressure is
about three pounds per square inch
where a thirty-inch track is used, OF
ess than that of the foot of either