Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Half-track
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Steam log hauler=== [[Image:Lombard steam log hauler.jpg|thumb|right|A restored Lombard steam log hauler in New Hampshire, US, in 2008]] [[Image:Holt75pk.jpg|thumb|right|alt=An early bulldozer-like tractor, on crawler tracks, with a leading single wheel for steering - projecting from the front - on an extension to the frame. The large internal combustion engine is in full view, with the cooling radiator prominent at the front. An overall roof is supported by thin rods, and side protection sheeting is rolled up under the edge of the roof.|The Holt 75 model gasoline-powered Caterpillar tractor. Later models were produced without the front "tiller wheel".]] The concept originated with log hauling in the northeastern US, with the [[Lombard Steam Log Hauler]] built by [[Alvin Lombard]] of [[Waterville, Maine]], from 1899 to 1917. The vehicle resembled a railway steam locomotive, with sled steering (or wheels) in front and chain-driven rear tracked rear crawlers driven by chains instead of the driving wheels of a locomotive.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5587.pdf | title = Lombard Steam Log Hauler | access-date = 6 January 2009 | author = Lore A Rogers and Caleb W Scribner | publisher = American Society of Mechanical Engineers | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20061005204934/http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5587.pdf | archive-date =2006-10-05 | url-status = dead }}</ref> By 1907, [[circus|dog and pony show]] operator H. H. Linn abandoned his gas-and-steam-powered four- and six-wheel-drive creations and had Lombard build a motor home/traction engine run by an underslung four-cylinder Brennan gasoline engine to travel the unimproved roads of the day, with wheels at the front and tracks at the rear: the first payload-carrying half-track. By 1909 this was replaced by a smaller machine with two wheels at the front and a single track behind, since rural wooden bridges presented problems. Stability issues, together with a dispute between Linn and Lombard, led Linn to create the Linn Manufacturing Company, builder of the [[Linn tractor]], for building and putting onto the market his own improved civilian half-track–style machines. Lombard attempted to follow but, for the most part, remained a pulling machine. Linn would later register "Haftrak" and "Catruk" as trademarks, the latter for a half-track meant to convert hydraulically from truck to crawler configuration. [[File:Artillery tractor in France Vosges Spring 1915.jpg|thumb|left|Artillery tractors (here a [[Benjamin Holt|Holt]] tractor) used by the French Army in 1914-1915]] [[Image:HoltTractorFrontviewAnd8inchHowitzer.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A Holt seventy-five tractor towing a field gun through a war-damaged village in Europe. The tractor is stacked high with supplies, and a number of uniformed soldiers are walking alongside.|A Holt tractor towing artillery through a French village in 1916]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)