A while ago there was some discussion about the relationship between the two above gents and the origin of the trade name Caterpillar. Here's some more stuff. It goes over some old ground but I think some of it is new, even if it throws up some apparent contradictions.
From Classic Caterpillar Crawlers (Haddock & Orlemann):
Alvin O. Lombard of Maine is credited with developing and building America's first successful crawler tractor. Designed for hauling logs in the winter, the machine resembled a railroad locomotive driven by crawler tracks instead of wheels, while the front end rested on a sled with runners to aid steering in snow. The prototype was tested in 1900, and, after some redesign, three more steam crawlers were built in 1901 and 1902. With much publicity, the Lombard crawler engines became popular in the eastern United States, with 205 recorded sales up to 1915.
Benjamin Holt had heard about the crawler machines and took a tour of the USA and Europe to learn exactly what had been accomplished with crawler tracks. This research convinced him that crawlers were the answer to the flotation and traction problems with wheeled tractors. He watched the Lombard tractors in operation and instructed his engineers to remove the wheels on the 40hp steam-driven Holt Junior Road Engine and replace them with a pair of tracks 9 feet long and 2 feet wide. Thus the first Holt crawler tractor was born. (Pictured) On its first field test on November 24th, 1904, it reportedly performed with complete satisfaction. Alvin Lombard maintained for the rest of his life that Holt simply copied his invention without making a cash settlement or paying royalties.
Several inventors in England were also simultaneously developing the crawler track. David Roberts, chief engineer with R. Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, patented a crawler track design in 1904. The following year a Roberts "chain track" was fitted to a Hornsby oil-powered tractor built in 1896. Several Hornsby steam- and oil-powered tractors were completed with crawler tracks, but despite much promotion, including the first film ever made for commercial purposes (1908) and demonstrations for high-ranking military personnel, the idea did not catch on.
Having received only one civilian order for a tracked tractor, to be used in northern Canada for hauling coal, the Hornsby Company became disillusioned and in 1914 sold the patent rights of the chain track to Holt Manufacturing for $8,000. Ironically, the crawler tractor gave Winston Churchill the idea of building the tank when the British Army needed a new fighting machine in World War One. Designers had to start from scratch to construct a suitable track-laying vehicle when just a year earlier Hornsby had sold what they needed to Holt. (I wouldn't have put those two sentences quite like that, but never mind) And just to add further to the irony, when the British Army needed crawler tractors for the war effort in 1914 it purchased them from Holt! The term "caterpillar" was first used to refer to a Holt machine in 1905. Benjamin and his nephew, Pliny, took the regular Holt photographer, Charles Clements, out to their ranch near Stockton to photograph the very first Holt crawler tractor in operation. The Holts referred to this machine as a "platform wheel engine". When Clements arrived at the ranch, he expected to see a tractor with the usual large driving wheels, but was amazed when he saw the new form of propulsion. He exclaimed in awe, "If that don't look like a monster caterpillar." After developing his images, Clements marked the first set of negatives "Caterpillar". The name was soon adopted as Holt's trademark and was registered as such with the U.S. Patent Office in 1910.
On the other hand, this is somewhat at odds with the above, and reiterates the claim that the name caterpillar came from British troops. In view of the precision of the the above account, I'm not convinced of that.
An effective caterpillar track was invented and implemented by Alvin Lombard for the Lombard steam log hauler. He was granted a patent in 1901. He built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine, the same year. In all, 83 Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to 1917, when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel powered unit in 1934. Undoubtedly, Alvin Lombard was the first commercial manufacturer of the tractor crawler. At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines apparently remains in working order. A gasoline powered Lombard hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.
In 1903, the founder of Holt Manufacturing, Benjamin Holt, paid Lombard $60,000 for the right to produce vehicles under his patent. There seems to have been an agreement made after Lombard moved to California, but some discrepancy exists as to how this matter was resolved when previous track patents were studied.
At about the same time a British agricultural company, Hornsby in Grantham, developed a caterpillar track which was patented in 1905. The design differed from modern tracks in that it flexed in only one direction with the effect that the links locked together to form a solid rail on which the road wheels ran. Hornsby's tracked vehicles were used as artillery tractors by the British Army from 1906.(?) The patent was purchased by Holt. The Hornsby tractors featured the track-steer clutch arrangement, which is the basis of the modern crawler operation, and some say an observing British soldier quipped that it crawled like a caterpillar. What is known is that caterpillar became a generic term for this type of machine. The word was shrewdly trademarked and defended by Holt.
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
