Toilers of sand and snow. Tracked vehicles
“Beer, fish, churchkhela, baklava!”
The call of the merchants porters on the beaches of southern Russia
The call of the merchants porters on the beaches of southern Russia
Crawler crawler shop. Since people thought of such an adaptation as a caterpillar, their life has changed a lot. Although it is difficult to say how many percent are good, but how much is worse. Roads, to which the wheeled “motors” of the early twentieth century were so attached, were no longer needed on tracked vehicles. Even the first Tanks for all their clumsiness, they easily overcame the "lunar landscape" of the fields of the First World War and even specially dug trench traps. All-terrain vehicles on caterpillars moved perfectly on sand and snow, paved roads through the Siberian taiga and the African jungle, in a word ... they worked hard.
The journal “Science and Mechanics” probably surpassed all other publications in terms of the scale of the proposed tracked vehicle!
That is, there were people who were just thinking how to put a plane, a ship and a submarine on the tracks, or even “stick them” somewhere, sometimes in the most amazing place. And I must say that sometimes it worked, although in most cases all these projects remained curious, however ... However, we will, as usual, talk about the most interesting in the end. In the meantime, I would like to draw the attention of VO readers to the covers of the American magazines Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that we have already used, which have become a clear evidence of the ability of the press to tell people that ... "why not." And no matter how absurd they may replicate, their main benefit was that they developed a fantasy in people. And then where they then sent her - the tenth matter. The main thing is to have it, that is, a fantasy, better than not, or have it as much as a cow!
It was quite seriously proposed by one American inventor in the mid-30's design. Before us is a wheeled-tracked conveyor for the development of inaccessible areas of Canada and Alaska. Huge wheels plus caterpillars would provide him with excellent performance, although it is not entirely clear why they should be combined?
But what if we have islands with a sandy coast on which it makes no sense to build harbors for ordinary ships, but people need to be transferred? What if you put the ship on ... caterpillars and let it float due to the displacement hull, and the caterpillars with strokes are rewound and drive it forward. And then it goes to the unequipped shore without any problems! And what would you think, the analogues of this ship entered the arsenal of the American army during the Second World War and were widely used in landing operations in the Pacific Ocean. The machines of the LVT family are still used today in the armies of various countries of the world lying by the sea.
Monstrous LVT-P7 of the South Korean Marine Corps at an exhibition in Ganzan Bay.
And here is a picture from the Japanese magazine Shōnen Club (1936) under the heading "Worldwide Invention of Transport Inventions." Here, however, the idea is a bit different: the tracks are rewound so quickly that they replace the propeller with these boats. But it’s still clear where this idea comes from!
What was the difference between Popular Mechanics magazine and Popular Science? Two things: first of all, there was a lot more red on its cover (the classic principle is “fools love red!”), So it was simply impossible not to notice him in a newsstand. And secondly, there were even more “crazy ideas” in him, and no one was shy about it. And here is one of them: a class warship is no lower than a cruiser equipped with caterpillars and hydrofoils. The first ones allow him to go ashore, and the second ones make it possible to make the transition by sea at high speed.
The project of "Popular Science" is purely peaceful. Here an underwater vehicle for tourists was placed on the tracks to ride them under water and demonstrate to them the beauty of the underwater kingdom.
And this is an underwater tracked bathysphere for deep sea research!
And again, the topic is intercepted by "Mechanics." Before us is an armored tracked motorcycle with a machine gun on his hand. A sort of "war horse" for all occasions. It is clear that an ordinary wheeled motorcycle will not work everywhere, while such a monster is supposed to be able to move in complete off-road conditions.
Moreover, the idea of such a "motorcycle" did not remain on paper. He was embodied in metal and even rode. Then it was very difficult to make him turn. But one of the advantages of a motorcycle is precisely its maneuverability. As a result, the car "did not go", leaving us with a cover and photo as a keepsake!
Crawler motorcycle with a machine gun!
And what, the next innovator decided, if we put the track in the back, and the steering wheel in the front? Then the cross-country ability of such a caterpillar vehicle will increase significantly and its management will not be too different from the usual motorcycle.
Yes, but in this case the main advantage of such a motorcycle would be lost. But what if you put the caterpillar still forward, but make it rotary? Or put two tracks - front and back. As a result of such reasoning, such machines appeared here. They were tested, but ... they still did not turn out to be better than ordinary motorcycles. They turned out to be very specific ...
At one time, it became fashionable as a replacement for caterpillars (again, the middle of the 30's, the "era of unbridled dreams") to consider a screw mover. But ... it was clear to everyone that a combat vehicle equipped with them would not be able to take either an escarp or cross an anti-tank moat. Fight in the swamps - please, there such a swamp could become indispensable. But moving on the same asphalt for her would simply mean disaster - and the destruction of the asphalt, and the screws themselves. But in the picture in the magazine Popular Mechanics, the auger fighting vehicle (again, bright red!) Looked simply frightening. In addition, it should have been a van der Graaff generator, accumulating charges of electricity. With his help, watering the enemy with a jet of water and using it as a conductor of electric current, it was just planned to incinerate the target with lightning strikes.
But a quite reasonable project of a small caterpillar all-terrain vehicle that would travel around the sand and scan it with magnetometers located in front and behind the car appeared in the magazine Popular Mechanics. It is known that in coastal sand there is nothing there - you can find gold rings, chains lost by scattered bathers and bathers, and even gold coins from sunken pirate ships and Spanish Golden Galleons fleet". There is even a profession like this - to look for gold lost over the summer on the beach, and there are experienced search engines who specifically buy sections of the beach and go catch luck after storms. But ... how many do you find like that, on your own two? And then, through the sand, nothing is visible. And then you go yourself along the edge of the surf, and "it" squeaks. He took a shovel, dug, and there the Roman gold solid or the Spanish doubloon. And then you will be happy!
Sometimes quite amusing designs of tracked vehicles appeared. For example, at the end of the 20 of the last century, the USSR proposed a project of a tracked chassis without a crew, which was supposed to serve as a platform for accommodating the 45-mm guns. "Driver" - if you can call the driver of this "iron horse" so should go behind her, since she had a low speed, and manage ... the real reins! He pulled one - turn left, pulled another - right. But nothing came of this project either.
But then the time passed and the idea of such a tracked platform, with remote control, was put into practice and where would you think? In Italy! And you can meet her on the beach in Rimini! Probably, everyone who was relaxing in our South remembered beach vendors with large bags, plying from one end of the beach to the other with loud shouts: “Beer, fish, jelly potato, baklava!” Someone offers dubious freshness of seafood, someone - ice cream . But how much will you take on yourself? I remember that in the 1968 year, when I first ended up abroad in Bulgaria, on Golden Sands, I was struck that the boys were completely legally involved in such a business. “Ice cream, to whom ice cream? Leningradsk was frozen! ”They shouted, passing by the umbrellas of the Soviet tourist groups, and then switched to English, French, German ...
The Italians, however, quite rightly realized that you couldn’t find a lot like that in the sand, and in addition you won’t take much on yourself. And they made a caterpillar mobile outlet with remote control by wire. The owner goes behind, and the "shop" goes in front of him, and when necessary he stops her and gives everyone who wants Coca-Cola, ice cream, coffee and hamburgers. All this is immediately cooled and warmed up, so the level of service is the highest possible!
Yes, they find old ideas for themselves, find ... But look how brightly colored it is, you don’t want to, but you will come, just out of idle curiosity!
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