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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Miscellaneous -> John Heathcoat 30 ton Tracked Ploughing Engine 1837
Post Info TOPIC: John Heathcoat 30 ton Tracked Ploughing Engine 1837
LincolnTanker


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John Heathcoat 30 ton Tracked Ploughing Engine 1837
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There is a lot of information about the early years of tracked vehicles amongst this topic on practicalengineering.com forum.  Page 9 is about the Heathcoat.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae288/rgrauman/Edwards6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/ot-crawler-tractors-196276/index9.html&usg=__7BQbSC5fu8Roa3H4r8kVJYHgWdY=&h=452&w=576&sz=88&hl=en&start=7&sig2=L3OaFjDigwhP_Vl8YCxUlw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xYdfL6ZjuSCE6M:&tbnh=105&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dww1%2Btank%2Bloco%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1T4ADFA_enGB375GB376%26as_st%3Dy%26tbs%3Disch:1,itp:lineart&ei=N2kNTMvpEsiC4QaOvLRq


Archivessmall.jpg
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ChrisG


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Hughbearson


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This model in particular is from 1837! Thats the oldest reference to tracked vehicles that I've seen!

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kieffer


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Great finding Chris, this is amazing!

Kieffer

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LincolnTanker


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It is amazing, such a shame it failed.

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ChrisG


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Rectalgia


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What a great thread and marvellous 'graphics' of Heathcoate's engine. This may be a more convenient link to it:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/ot-crawler-tractors-196276/index9.html

(Hint, when an image link is followed in Google, press the "Remove frame" link on the right-hand side on arrival). Google can, I think, live without the perpetual referer credits.

Alas, we cannot rely on the links surviving indefinitely (Charlie mentioned the "link-rot" thing relative to our own site). Here is one that should be relatively safe (internet archive):

steamtraction.com Nov 1953 - but the context is lost/buried - seems that image is on a few places on the internet anyway.

Another of the fragile links from an earlier issue of Practical Machinist

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/1003/PeterS/Heathcote1837500years.jpg which is noted as being from 500 Years of Earthmoving by Heinz-Herbert Cohrs.

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LincolnTanker


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Thanks Rectaligia, I thought there must be some way of improving the link.


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ChrisG


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hobgrot


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Most interesting, I have the book "Ploughing by Steam" that covers also the Heathcoat machine in some depth.

Further research I did for my article on the History of the Half-track 1890-2000 revealed the following ...

the ancient Babylonians invented the track / treadmill / conveyor-belt / bucket-chain.

Tracks for Wagons ....
Richard Lovell Edgeworth, 1770 the first ever Patent for an endless track running over wheels (not built).

Sir George Cayley, 1825 received a Patent for "tension-spoke wheels", which he called a "Universal Railway" (not built).
Also designed a self-righting lifeboat, proto-typical internal combustion engine fuelled by gunpowder (tested by the Mythbusters) ... considered the inventor of aerodynamics & the airplane (1799) -- Wilbur Wright agreed -- a full-size replica of Cayley's 1805 scale-model glider was successfully flown in 1985.

Quad-track horse-drawn wagons actually built by Russians Dmitry Zagryazhsky (1837) & Fyodor Blinov (1879)
The Athey full-track hay-wagon was used in the Pacific in WW2 & in the Arctic in the 1950's.

Demonstrated full-tracked steam-tractors by Warren Miller (1858), Mr Batter (1880) & Fyodor Blinov (1888).

The story then moves on to the Lombard, Best & Holt tractors & into WW1 where the mono-track Pedrail horse-drawn wagon is tested by Winston Churchill (he easily pulled a 1ton payload by hand), this led to the Pedrail Tank named "Articuleur" ...

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Ironsides


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from : History and development of steam locomotion on common roads (1891)

Edgeworth on the 1770 patent:

" The experience which I have acquired by this
industry has overpaid me for the trifling disappointments I
have met with, and I have gained far more in amusement than
I have lost by unsuccessful labour. Indeed, the only morti-
fication that affected me was my discovering, many years
after I had taken out my patent, that the rudiments of my
whole scheme were mentioned in an obscure memoir of the
French Academy."

Now in Vol. III. of the "Machines Approuvees par I'Academie Royale des Sciences,"

there is a description of a sailing carriage, which, in the act of turning
rests upon four points of support, like the carriage invented
by Dr. Darwin and Mr. Edgeworth ; and in the same volume
there is an account of a truck, or low carriage, for heavy
weights, provided with small rollers, or wheels which travel
upon an endless chain of rollers."

Cheerssmile



-- Edited by Ironsides on Wednesday 31st of August 2011 11:08:10 AM

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James H


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There is also some interesting stuff here:

http://www.unusuallocomotion.com/rubrique,changes-around-the-track-i,1127096.html

Some familiar, but some new, I think. Generous mentions of Edgeworth.



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Ironsides


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Thanks James, so that would be d'Herman in 1713 who RLE was referring too..

So effectively you could argue that the endless track predates Horseless locomotion by some years..

 

Cheerswink



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James H


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One assumes so. I'm sure I remember reading that the device invented by M. d'Herman (or Hermand or something along those lines) was meant to be pulled by goats.

Anyway, here's George Cayley's Universal Railway of 1826:



-- Edited by James H on Wednesday 31st of August 2011 10:34:12 PM

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