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Continuous track
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=== 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) β the year his dreadnaught wheel was first applied to a steam engine β 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 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=327β328 |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>
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