Editing Continuous track (section)

== History ==
The British [[polymath]] Sir [[George Cayley]] patented a continuous track, which he called a "universal railway" in 1825.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_roAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA225 |journal=Mechanics Magazine |title=Sir George Cayley's patent universal railway |volume=5 |issue=127 |pages=225–227 |date=1826-01-28 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313211633/https://books.google.com/books?id=_roAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA225 |archive-date=2017-03-13 }}</ref> [[Polish mathematician]] and inventor [[Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński]] designed caterpillar vehicles in the 1830s to compete with the railways.<ref name="wronski">{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Wronski.html|title=Josef-Maria Hoëné de Wronski|access-date=2009-05-30|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090811014108/http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Wronski.html|archive-date=2009-08-11}}</ref> In 1837, [[Russia]]n army captain Dmitry Andreevich Zagryazhsky (1807 – after 1860) designed a ''"carriage with mobile tracks"'' which he patented the same year but, due to a lack of funds and interest from manufacturers, he was unable to build a working prototype, and his patent was voided in 1839.

=== Heathcote's Steam Plough ===
[[File:HeathcotesSteamPlough.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Heathcote Steam Plough as demonstrated in 1837]]

Patented in 1832 by [[John Heathcoat]] (also Heathcote), M.P. for [[Tiverton (UK Parliament constituency)|Tiverton]], the Heathcote steam plough was demonstrated in 1837 and press coverage fortunately provided a [[woodcut]] of the unusual tracked vehicle.<ref>{{cite news |title=Heathcote's Steam Plough |newspaper=Chelmsford Chronicle |location=US |date=29 December 1837 |page=4}}</ref> The continuous tracks were made of {{cvt|7|foot|cm|round=5|order=flip}} sections of wood bolted to continuous iron bands which were driven by "drums" at each end. A strong chassis provided the bearings for the drums, and carried the steam engine, fuel and winch. The chassis was supported on "numerous small wheels or rollers" which ran upon the lower iron bands, which "thus form a perfectly portable and smooth road for the platform".

The drums were {{cvt|9|or|10|foot|cm|round=5|order=flip}} in diameter, {{cvt|26|foot|cm|round=5|order=flip}} apart. The tracks were each {{cvt|7|foot|cm|round=5|order=flip}} wide with a {{cvt|7|foot|cm|round=5|order=flip}} gap in-between giving an overall width of {{cvt|21|feet|cm|round=5|order=flip}}. The twin-cylinder steam engine could be used either to drive the plough winch or to drive the vehicle along, at a speed of up to {{cvt|5|feet/minute|cm/minute|round=5|order=flip}}. Although the machine weighed 30 tons complete with 6 tons of fuel, its ground pressure was only {{cvt|178|lb/sqft|0|order=flip}}, considerably less than a man. 

The successful demonstration was carried out on 20 April 1837, at [[Red Moss, Greater Manchester|Red Moss]] at [[Bolton-le-Moors]]. The steam plough was lost when it sank into a swamp by accident and was then abandoned, because the inventor did not have the funds to continue development.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AM38RNF_F4C&q=Cayley+Caterpillar+Track&pg=PA15 |title = Classic Caterpillar Crawlers| year=2001 | publisher=MotorBooks International |isbn = 9781610605793}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QP8pAQAAIAAJ&q=1832+Heathcote+Caterpillar+Track |title = Steam on the Farm: A History of Agricultural Steam Engines 1800 to 1950|isbn = 9781847970527|last1 = Brown|first1 = Jonathan|year = 2008| publisher=Crowood Press }}</ref>

=== Dreadnaught wheel by Boydell (1846) ===
{{Main|Dreadnaught wheel}}
Although not a continuous track in the form encountered today, a [[dreadnaught wheel]] or "endless railway wheel" was patented by the British Engineer [[James Boydell]] in 1846. In Boydell's design, a series of flat feet are attached to the periphery of the wheel, spreading the weight.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/8/86/Im1862EnV13-p284.jpg |title=Burrell's traction engine with Boydell's endless railway |work=Grace's Guide |year=1857 |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002130241/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/8/86/Im1862EnV13-p284.jpg |archive-date=2013-10-02 }}</ref> A number of horse-drawn wagons, carts and gun carriages were successfully deployed in the [[Crimean War]], waged between October 1853 and February 1856, the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich manufacturing dreadnaught wheels. A letter of recommendation was signed by Sir William Codrington, the General commanding the troops at Sebastopol.<ref>{{cite book
  |title=The story of the St. Nicholas Works: A History of Charles Burrell and Sons
  |first=Michael R. |last=Lane |year=1994 |publisher=Unicorn Press |location=London
  |isbn=978-0906290071
}}</ref><ref name="Boydell artillery wheel">{{cite web |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Boydell%20Artillery%20Wheel.pdf |title=Boydell Artillery Wheel |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002145418/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Boydell%20Artillery%20Wheel.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-02 }}</ref>

Boydell patented improvements to his wheel in 1854 (No. 431) – the year his dreadnaught wheel was first applied to a steam engine – and 1858 (No. 356), the latter an impracticable palliative measure involving the lifting one or other of the driving wheels to facilitate turning.

A number of manufacturers including Richard Bach, [[Richard Garrett & Sons]], [[Charles Burrell & Sons]] and [[Clayton & Shuttleworth]] applied the Boydell patent under licence. The British military were interested in Boydell's invention from an early date. One of the objectives was to transport [[Mallet's Mortar]], a giant 36&nbsp;inch weapon which was under development, but, by the end of the Crimean War, the [[mortar (weapon)|mortar]] was not ready for service. A detailed report of the tests on steam traction, carried out by a select Committee of the Board of Ordnance, was published in June 1856,<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vghAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA111 |title=Governments Experiments with Boydell's Traction-Engine |journal=The Farmer's Magazine |location=London |volume=45 |issue=1 |date=1856-06-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032113/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0vghAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA111 |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> by which date the Crimean War was over, consequently the mortar and its transportation became irrelevant. In those tests, a Garrett engine was put through its paces on Plumstead Common. The Garrett engine featured in the Lord Mayor's show in London, and in the following month that engine was shipped to Australia. A [[steam tractor]] employing dreadnaught wheels was built at Bach's Birmingham works, and was used between 1856 and 1858 for ploughing in Thetford; and the first generation of Burrell/Boydell engines was built at the St. Nicholas works in 1856, again, after the close of the Crimean War.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Boydell's%20Wheels%20Tuxford.pdf |title=Tuxford's Boydell Traction Engine |year=1857 |work=Science& Society: Picture Library |location=UK |access-date=2014-02-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194723/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Boydell's%20Wheels%20Tuxford.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref>

Between late 1856 and 1862 Burrell manufactured not less than a score of engines fitted with dreadnaught wheels. In April 1858, the journal ''The Engineer'' gave a brief description of a Clayton & Shuttleworth engine fitted with dreadnaught wheels, which was supplied not to the Western Allies, but to the Russian government for heavy artillery haulage in [[Crimea]] in the post-war period.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=(Staff) |title=The iron, coal, and general trades of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and other towns |journal=The Engineer |date=23 April 1858 |volume=5 |pages=327–328 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JExHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA328}}  See p. 328, left-hand column.</ref>{{sfnp|Lane|1994|pages=  }}<ref>{{cite book
  |title=The Development of the English Traction Engine |first=Ronald H. |last=Clark |year=1974 |publisher=Goose and Son |location= Cambridge UK |isbn=0900404027
}}</ref> Steam tractors fitted with dreadnaught wheels had a number of shortcomings and, notwithstanding the creations of the late 1850s, were never used extensively.<ref name="Boydell artillery wheel"/><ref>{{cite web
  |url=https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/merl/Microsoft_Word_-_Burrell_Catalogue.pdf |title=Charles Burrell & Sons Limited |work=University of Reading |location=UK |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221162314/https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/merl/Microsoft_Word_-_Burrell_Catalogue.pdf |archive-date=2014-02-21 
}}</ref>

=== Endless Railway by John Fowler (1858) ===
In August 1858, more than two years after the end of the [[Crimean War]], [[John Fowler (agricultural engineer)|John Fowler]] filed British Patent No.&nbsp;1948 on another form of "Endless Railway". In his illustration of the invention, Fowler used a pair of wheels of equal diameter on each side of his vehicle, around which pair of toothed wheels ran a 'track' of eight jointed segments, with a smaller jockey/drive wheel between each pair of wheels, to support the 'track'. Comprising only eight sections, the 'track' sections are essentially 'longitudinal', as&nbsp;in Boydell's initial design.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Burrell-Boydell%20Tractor.pdf |title=Burrell-Boydell Tractor |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002140930/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Burrell-Boydell%20Tractor.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-02 }}</ref> Fowler's arrangement is a precursor to the multi-section caterpillar track in which a relatively large number of short 'transverse' treads are used, as proposed by Sir George Caley in 1825,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Sir%20George%20Caley's%20Continuous%20Track.pdf |title=Patent No. 5260 A New Locomotive Apparatus |first=Georg |last=Caley |year=1825 |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121194507/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~brbeamond/Sir%20George%20Caley's%20Continuous%20Track.pdf |archive-date=2017-11-21 }}</ref> rather than a small number of relatively long 'longitudinal' treads.

Further to Fowler's patent of 1858, in 1877, a Russian, [[Fyodor Blinov]], created a tracked vehicle called "[[wagon]] moved on endless rails".<ref name=blinov>{{cite web |url=http://ricolor.org/history/eng/prm/blinov/ |title=Изобретатель трактора (Ф. Блинов) |trans-title=The inventor of the tractor (F.Blinov) |first1=D. |last1=Lozovoi |first2=A. |last2=Lozova |work=Russia in Colours |language=ru |access-date=2011-08-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727215339/http://ricolor.org/history/eng/prm/blinov/ |archive-date=2011-07-27 }}</ref> It lacked self-propulsion and was pulled by horses. Blinov received a patent for his "wagon" in 1878. From 1881 to 1888 he developed a steam-powered caterpillar-tractor. This self-propelled crawler was successfully tested and featured at a farmers' exhibition in 1896.<ref name=blinov/>

=== 20th century efforts ===
[[Steam traction engines]] were used at the end of the 19th century in the [[Boer War]]s. But neither dreadnaught wheels nor continuous tracks were used, rather "roll-out" wooden plank roads were thrown under the wheels as required.<ref>''The Implement and Machinery Review'', 1901-01-02</ref>
In&nbsp;short, whilst the development of the continuous track engaged the attention of a number of inventors in the 18th and 19th centuries, the general use and exploitation of the continuous track belonged to the 20th century, mainly in the [[United States]] and [[England]].

A little-known American inventor, Henry Thomas Stith (1839–1916), had developed a continuous track prototype which was, in multiple forms, patented in 1873, 1880, and 1900.<ref>Henry T. Stith's patents for tracked wheels:  
* Stith, Henry T. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210812160111/https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00138707 "Improvement in traction-wheels"] U.S. Patent no. 138,707 (filed: 2 May 1873; issued: 6 May 1873).
* Stith, Henry T. [https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00224741 "Traction-wheel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812160112/https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00224741 |date=2021-08-12 }} U.S. Patent no. 224,741 (filed: 5 August 1879; issued: 17 February 1880). 
* Stith, Henry T. [https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00654291 "Traction wheel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812160111/https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00654291 |date=2021-08-12 }} U.S. Patent no. 654,291 (filed: 26 December 1899; issued: 24 July 1900).</ref><ref>Biographical information about the American inventor Henry Thomas Stith (1839-1916) is available from the [https://www.kshs.org/museum/musobjs/view/320173 Kansas Historical Society].</ref> The last was for the application of the track to a prototype off-road bicycle built for his son.<ref name="stith">{{cite journal |title=The Tank Tread Was His Baby |journal=Popular Science |year=1944 |issue=June |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63 |access-date=2011-08-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313131943/https://books.google.com/books?id=mCYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63 |archive-date=2017-03-13 }}</ref> The 1900 prototype is retained by his surviving family.

Frank Beamond (1870–1941), a less-commonly known but significant British inventor, designed and built caterpillar tracks, and was granted patents for them in a number of countries, in 1900 and 1907.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~rogerbeamond/INVENTION.pdf|title=Invention of the Caterpillar Track: Frank Beamond and his Patents|access-date=2014-12-10|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721184346/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~rogerbeamond/INVENTION.pdf|archive-date=2015-07-21}}</ref>

[[File:Lombard steam log hauler.jpg|thumb|Lombard Steam Log Hauler (Designed, patented 1901)]]

=== First commercial success (1901) ===
An effective continuous track was invented and implemented by [[Alvin Orlando Lombard]] for the [[Lombard Steam Log Hauler]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} He was granted a patent in 1901 and built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine, the same year. In&nbsp;all, 83&nbsp;Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to&nbsp;1917, when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel-powered unit in&nbsp;1934. Alvin Lombard may also have been the first commercial manufacturer of the tractor crawler.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines apparently remains in working order.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allroutes.to/modeltandlombard/ |title=Lombard Log Hauler and Model T Snowmobile Show Route 175 Thornton, NH |access-date=2011-08-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814215748/http://www.allroutes.to/modeltandlombard/ |archive-date=2011-08-14 }}</ref> A gasoline-powered Lombard hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta. In addition, there may have been up to twice as many Phoenix Centipede versions of the steam log hauler built under license from Lombard, with vertical instead of horizontal cylinders. In 1903, the founder of Holt Manufacturing, [[Benjamin Holt]], paid Lombard $60,000 for the right to produce vehicles under his patent.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Richard|last=Backus|url=http://gasengine.farmcollector.com/Farm-Shows/100-Years-on-Track.aspx|title=''100 Years on Track'' 2004 Tulare Antique Farm Equipment Show|journal=Farm Collector|publisher=Gas Engine Magazine|date=August–September 2004|access-date=2010-02-04|archive-date=2009-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822181653/http://gasengine.farmcollector.com/Farm-Shows/100-Years-on-Track.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>[[File:Phoenix_Centipede_log_hauler.JPG|thumb|Phoenix Centipede log hauler]]

=== The stiff chain by Hornsby & Sons (1904) ===
At about the same time a British agricultural company, [[Richard Hornsby & Sons|Hornsby]] in [[Grantham]], developed a continuous track which was patented in 1905.<ref>{{cite patent| country	= GB| number	= 190416345| title	= Improvements in or connected with Road Locomotives and Vehicles.| pubdate	= 1 Jun 1905| pridate	= 23 Jul 1904| inventor	= David Roberts| url	= https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/032544550/publication/GB190416345A?q=pn%3DGB190416345A}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123121901/https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/032544550/publication/GB190416345A?q=pn%3DGB190416345A |date=23 November 2021 }}</ref> 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 given trials as [[artillery tractor]]s by the [[British Army]] on several occasions between 1905 and 1910, but not adopted.

The Hornsby tractors pioneered a track-steer clutch arrangement, which is the basis of the modern crawler operation.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The patent was purchased by Holt.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

<gallery>
File:Roberts_tracked_steam_tractor.jpg|upright=1.25|First [[Chain Track]]ed [[Tractor]]<br />(1905, Richard Hornsby & Sons)
File:Hornsby.jpg|upright=1.3|Hornsby Chain Tracked Tractor<br />(1907 enhanced Version)
</gallery>

=== Holt and the Caterpillar ===

The name ''Caterpillar'' came from a soldier during the tests on the Hornsby crawler, "trials began at [[Aldershot Garrison|Aldershot]] in July 1907. The soldiers immediately christened the 70bhp No.2 machine the 'caterpillar'."<ref>''The Devil's Chariots'', John Glanfield</ref>
Holt adopted that name for his "crawler" tractors. Holt began moving from steam to gasoline-powered designs, and in 1908 brought out the {{convert|40|hp|adj=on}} "Holt Model 40 Caterpillar". Holt incorporated the Holt Caterpillar Company, in early 1910, later that year trademarked the name "Caterpillar" for his continuous tracks.<ref name=acmoc2>
{{cite web
 | title= About Caterpillar
 | publisher= Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club
 | url= https://www.acmoc.org/about-caterpillar?showall=&start=2
 | access-date= 2016-11-07
 | url-status= live
 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160322134708/http://www.acmoc.org/about-caterpillar?showall=&start=2
 | archive-date= 2016-03-22
}}
</ref>

[[Caterpillar Tractor Company]] began in 1925 from a merger of the [[Holt Manufacturing Company]] and the [[C. L. Best|C. L. Best Tractor Company]], an early successful manufacturer of crawler tractors.

With the [[Caterpillar D10]] in 1977, Caterpillar resurrected a design by Holt and Best, the high-sprocket-drive, since known as the "[[Caterpillar D10#High Drive system|High Drive]]",<ref name="Caterpillar high drive">{{cite book
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyX4X1B_hLsC&q=D+10+high+drive&pg=PA17 |title=Giant Earthmovers: An Illustrated History |publisher=MotorBooks International |access-date=2015-08-16 |last=Haddock |first=Keith |pages=17, 20, 21 |isbn=9781610605861 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007222123/https://books.google.com/books?id=oyX4X1B_hLsC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=D+10+high+drive&source=bl&ots=_O7PGqTlgv&sig=6sMMK6y8_qlRPpZDIUH_yhFNXgQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBmoVChMI35fdobutxwIVhUiSCh0TowAH#v=onepage&q=D%2010%20high%20drive&f=false |archive-date=2015-10-07 }}</ref> which had the advantage of keeping the main drive shaft away from ground shocks and dirt,<ref>The Earthmover Encyclopedia, Page 28, Keith Haddock</ref>
and is still used in their larger dozers.

<gallery heights="180px" mode="packed">
File:Cat45-mojave.jpg|Two [[Holt tractor|Holt 45]] gasoline crawler tractors teamed up to pull a long wagon train in the [[Mojave Desert]] during construction of the [[Los Angeles Aqueduct]] in 1909.
File:Rear-D9-0002.jpg|[[Caterpillar D9]] [[Caterpillar D10#High Drive system|High Drive]]. The elevated drive sprocket offers advantages to large earth-moving machines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.equipmentjournal.com/construction-news/cats-elevated-sprocket-that-changed-the-dozer/|title=Cat's elevated sprocket that changed the dozer market|work=Equipment Journal|date=2017-09-17|access-date=2019-04-16|archive-date=2021-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518051949/https://www.equipmentjournal.com/construction-news/cats-elevated-sprocket-that-changed-the-dozer/|url-status=live}}</ref>
</gallery>

=== Snow vehicles ===
In a memorandum of 1908, Antarctic explorer [[Robert Falcon Scott]] presented his view that man-hauling to the South Pole was impossible and that motor traction was needed.<ref>R. F. Scott (1908). ''The Sledging Problem in the Antarctic, Men versus Motors''</ref> [[Snow vehicle]]s did not yet exist however, and so his engineer [[Reginald Skelton]] developed the idea of a caterpillar track for snow surfaces.<ref>Roland Huntford (2003) ''Scott and Amundsen. Their Race to the South Pole. The Last Place on Earth.'' Abacus, London, p.224</ref> These tracked motors were built by the [[Wolseley Motors|Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company]] in Birmingham, tested in Switzerland and Norway, and can be seen in action in [[Herbert Ponting]]'s 1911 documentary film of Scott's Antarctic [[Terra Nova Expedition]].<ref>
{{cite AV media
 |title=90 Degrees South
 |author=riverbanksy
 |date=2011-08-21
 |via=YouTube
 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBttUMKND4
 |at= minute: 50
 |access-date=2016-10-23
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003104603/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBttUMKND4
 |archive-date=2016-10-03
}}
</ref> Scott died during the expedition in 1912, but expedition member and biographer [[Apsley Cherry-Garrard]] credited Scott's "motors" with the inspiration for the British World War I tanks, writing: "Scott never knew their true possibilities; for they were the direct ancestors of the 'tanks' in France."<ref>{{cite book | last = Cherry-Garrard | first = Apsley | author-link = Apsley Cherry-Garrard | title = The Worst Journey in the World | date = 1922 | publisher = Constable & Co. Ltd. | location = London, England | volume = 2 | page = 322 | url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031034879&view=1up&seq=38&skin=2021 | archive-date = 2021-08-12 | access-date = 2021-08-12 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210812170923/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031034879&view=1up&seq=38&skin=2021 | url-status = live }}</ref>

<gallery heights="180px" mode="packed">
File:Snow wing skid steer.webp|Snow wing skid steer with tracked treads
</gallery>

In time, however, a wide array of vehicles were developed for snow and ice, including [[snowcat|ski slope grooming machines]], [[snowmobile]]s, and countless commercial and military vehicles.

=== Military application ===
Continuous track was first applied to a military vehicle on the British prototype tank [[Little Willie]]. British Army officers, Colonel [[Ernest Swinton]] and Colonel [[Maurice Hankey]], became convinced that it was possible to develop a fighting vehicle that could provide protection from machine gun fire.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWwillie.htm |title=Little Willie Tank |first=John |last=Simkin |publisher=Spartacus Educational |location=UK |access-date=2016-11-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109021734/http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWwillie.htm |archive-date=2016-11-09 }}</ref>

During [[World War I]], Holt tractors were used by the British and Austro-Hungarian armies to tow heavy artillery and stimulated the development of [[tank]]s in several countries. The first tanks to go into action, the [[British heavy tanks of World War I|Mark I]], built by Great Britain, were designed from scratch and were inspired by, but not directly based on, the Holt. The slightly later French and German tanks were built on modified Holt running gear.