| rdfs:comment | - An effective continuous track was invented and implemented by Alvin Lombard for the Lombard steam log hauler. He was granted a patent in 1901. He built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine, the same year. In all, 83 Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to 1917, when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel powered unit in 1934. Undoubtedly, Alvin Lombard was the first commercial manufacturer of the tractor crawler. At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines apparently remains in working order. A gasoline powered Lombard hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.
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| abstract | - An effective continuous track was invented and implemented by Alvin Lombard for the Lombard steam log hauler. He was granted a patent in 1901. He built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine, the same year. In all, 83 Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to 1917, when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel powered unit in 1934. Undoubtedly, Alvin Lombard was the first commercial manufacturer of the tractor crawler. At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines apparently remains in working order. 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 Centipeed 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. There seems to have been an agreement made after Lombard moved to California, but some discrepancy exists as to how this matter was resolved when previous track patents were studied. Popularly, everyone claimed to have been inspired by the dog treadmill used on farms to power the butter churn, etc. to "invent" the crawler on their own, and the more recent the history, the earlier this supposed date of invention seems to get. At about the same time a British agricultural company, Hornsby in Grantham, developed a continuous track which was patented in 1905. 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 used as artillery tractors by the British Army from 1906. The patent was purchased by Holt. The Hornsby tractors featured the track-steer clutch arrangement, which is the basis of the modern crawler operation, and some say an observing British soldier quipped that it crawled like a caterpillar. The word was shrewdly trademarked and defended by Holt. James B. Hill, working in Bowling Green, Wood County, Ohio, patented what he termed "apron traction" on September 24, 1907. Following a merger with the Best Company and name change, The Holt Manufacturing Company became the Caterpillar Tractor Company in 1925. Caterpillar brand continuous tracks have since revolutionized construction vehicles and land warfare. Track systems have been developed and improved during. The first tanks to be fielded were developed from Holt tractors which were already in use towing artillery over the difficult terrain of the Western Front of the First World War. Perhaps the oldest implementation of something like tracks is to be found in theories of prehistoric erection of large stone monuments, when megaliths may have been slid atop rounded wooden logs. The logs were grooved near their ends to be held in alignment and rotation by belts out past the edge of the megalith and lubricated by some means, probably organic. The logs are carried from the back of the procession to the front in an endless chain, like continuous track. Attempts by experimental archaeologists to reconstruct these methods have met with varying success. The system is a precursor to development of the axle, which keeps a rotating cylinder fixed relative to its cargo. The Israeli Defence Forces have developed an improved suspension system, called Mazkum מזקו"ם , which enables greater mobility than regular tracks. The Mazkum is installed on the Israeli Merkava tank which helps improve mobility and speed, some of the Israeli patents were sold to Caterpillar.
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