TANKS IN 1860.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 241, 12 January 1917, Page 4

TANKS IN 1860.

An invention, very analagous to the tank, at present playing such havoc on the Sorame, was, it seems, submitted in 1860 to Napoleon 111. by a Frenchman named Balbi, but never applied. Balbi called them moving fortresses, and, in the absence of explosion motors, used steam as a driving power. They were much smaller affairs than the present tanks, mounting only two guns, but fitted so that quite a number of men could ride on them and use their rifies. They were ironclad, and sufficiently armed to resist any artillery of those days. They were provided with lances and shears, and which, when put into movement, revolved rapidly and continuously around the base of the fortress in a manner to cut anything to pieces that got in its way. A special system of flexible axles was employed enabling the contrivance to go over any kind of ground and to manoeuvre in a manner similar to the caterpillar fortress. Notwithstanding that the few machines made of this pattern gave every promise of success in a series of exhaustive trials, they were never adopted, and those that were constructed now figure, dilapidated and neglected, among the relics of the artillery museum.