The World's First Caterpillar Track (1908) | BFI
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2009
- The World's First Caterpillar Track (1908) | BFI. Subscribe: bit.ly/subscribetotheBFI. (The only surviving materials of this title feature German intertitles).
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Mud has defeated many a conquering army. In the days of horse-drawn transport or ponderous and hugely heavy steam-powered engines, R. Hornsby and Sons nippy little petrol-driven caterpillar track must have seemed like the technological development of the century.
In this promotional film, shot in Grantham, Lincolnshire and delivered by the company in a spirit of optimism reminiscent of an edition of 'Tomorrow's World', the little vehicle is put through its paces, making light of its load over clay, mud, soft sand, marshy land and streams. It leaves the horse-drawn load stuck in a bog, and ends the display turning gleefully on the spot in a celebration of manoeuvrability.
7 or 8 years later, could years of trench warfare have been shortened if the engineers had been encouraged by the British military? (Bryony Dixon)
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Incredible. This was made over 100 years ago and I'm watching it on my computer screen! Thankyou, BFI, nothing pleases me more than watching films that capture such moments that no one knew would be watchable today.
The patents for the Heathcote machine can be found in Google Patents and there are even earlier patents for a 'universal railway' also available for viewing there.
BFI do upload a eclectic mixs of archive material and that's why it makes it one of my favourite subscriptions.
HAAAA gotta luv those living room sofa chairs they used in it!!!
Amazing. My grandma worked at this factory in WW1 (and organised the women's football team) and my mother narrowly escaped injury when the factory was bombed in 1940.
Hornsby's looms large in the family's legend.
sp3ccylad I think I have a photo of a Grantham Hornsby woman's football team. Would be interesting if its the very same person.
6:05 lol.... people are still the same.... they have to pull donuts....
These are german donuts, much more aggressive 😂
That's the first time I've seen a tracked vehicle with a steering wheel.
Cat Challengers have steering wheels
@@yamafz6r yea but nearly all others don't.... this was extremely ahead of it's time in so many ways... the item in this video
It's not German engineering. The Hornsby tractors were built at Grantham, in Lincolnshire. The film has German captions because it was an advertisement to try to sell the vehicles abroad. The original, longer film is available from the Media Archive for Central England at the University of Leicester.
LOL at 1:40 that last horse looked behind like thinking: ugh, i wish i had one of these!
Hi, Folks.
One John Heathcote built a steam-powered cable plowing tractor in about 1837 that travelled on tracks made of canvas stiffened with wooden slats. This steam tractor was TEN feet wide and weighed 30 TONS. It was built for plowing the peat mosses of Northern England and Southern Scotland and it apparently did work. Heathcote spent several years trying to improve the machine before it was finally dismantled and the boiler sent off to Egypt or somewhere over there.
This vehicle was to be the fore runner to the first tank. The base had a box added toit in Lincoln built under top secret circumstances. It is a British Hornsby & Co invention and did originate in Grantham. It is no fake.. It is a British promotional film. True to form when WW1 struck the British Government was anxious for a higher turnover of vehicles. Hornsbys couldnt keep up with demand at the price the Government was prepared to pay so as mentioned the patent was sold to US firm.
+Charmaine Morgan
Hi, Charmaine Morgan.
As I understand it, Hornsby did submit a proposal to the British war department on several occasions for their design to be accepted as an artillery tractor but the war dept didn't seem interested. I can find no mention of Hornsby ever submitting and idea for a tank or other armoured fighting vehicle. Hornsby eventually sold their patents to Holt in the U.S.A., in about 1914.
Much of the credit for the development of the tank should go to a Major Ernest Swinton of the British Army for continually pushing for the development of an armoured fighting vehicle based on the caterpillar track.
Again, as I understand it, the original track design for the first British tanks was based more on the American Bullock Creeping Grip crawler tractors than on either Hornsby's or Holt's designs.
You might like to check out the Wikipedia page:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_World_War_I
The Hornsby Chain Track design had a couple of serious flaws in that it was designed to support itself in an arch shape and thus could not lay flat to spread its load over longer lengths of track and it was prone to 'pinching' sticks and stones between the links which could cause it to lock up.
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
the proving ground was just off monks road in Lincoln UK
One of the best clips of Hornsby tracks working
The first practical tracked vehicles were built in Waterville, Maine starting in 1901 by the A O Lombard Company. They were called Lombard Steam Log Haulers. Supposedly there were a total of 83 Log Haulers built, There is at least one restored Lombard Steam Log Hauler operational today.
83 Steam powered ones built, then about ~200 gas powered ones built. They were also built under the name Pheonix, they paid to use the patent.
I used to love seeing the one in the State Museum, I came to the comments section to post about these. Never underestimate the engineering capabilities of a Yankee.
That’s the future right there! Just wait, in a few short years we’ll all be driving to work in cars with tracks!
1:22 They see me rollin, they hatin... xD
In 1877, the inventor made "car" on caterpillar to a course, a reminding railway car with a wooden body. «Infinite rails» car represented the closed iron tapes consisting of separate links. The car had 4 basic wheels and four leading asterisks. It was actuated by horse draft and, in essence, represented the caterpillar trailer. In 1878 the petition was submitted to Department of trade and manufactories about delivery to V.Blinov of "privellegiya" (patent) which was given out in September 20 1879
This is a British film with German subtitles. It was a promotional film, attempting to sell the vehicles. The company is Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, Lincolnshire. The smaller vehicle is the chassis of a Rochet-Schneider automobile on Hornsby tracks. Whether it counts as the world's first caterpillar track is open to debate. There are surviving copies of this film without subtitles.
I think that are germans on this video. From where should you know that this is a British film?
Burn1999EE From all the reasons already explained. The full version of this film (without titles and in better quality) is at the Media Archive for Central England, at Leicester University. The machines were designed by Hornsby's managing director, David Roberts, and the patent was later sold to Benjamin Holt, who went on to create the Caterpillar Company. The intertiltles are German, because they hoped to sell tractors in Germany, but the signs in the film are in English. Warum glauben Sie das Deutschen anwesend sind?
Burn1999EE
Right hand drive? The terraced housing? Vehicle parked on left side of road?
I first saw this film or one like it at an evening meeting of the Manchester University (Faculty of Technology) Engineering Society in or about 1965, and like another commentator, I never thought I would see it again. Hence full marks for the BFI. I wonder if they have the archive of the BP Film Service, with other fine films, e.g. oil exploration in Libya. I have found many excellent clips of historic diesel engines, like the Graz air-blast injection oil engine of 1904. Fantastic!
I noticed the two face-to-face passenger seats behind the driver, and the mud fenders covering the rear. The builders must've had some consideration for comfort.
Alvin Lombard had the 1st patent for the continuous track, check out the Lombard Log Hauler.
Was this filmed in Grantham, Lincolnshire? One of the towed trucks possibly has a covert with Grantham painted on it.
I'm afraid Skid's account is not very accurate. American firms such as Batter, Lombard, Best, Bullock, Killen-Strait, and Holt manufactured unsprung tracked vehicles in the late 19th-early 20th century. Hornsby sold the patent for their sprung track to Holt, which became the Caterpillar Company. The British tanks were based on a redesign of a Bullock vehicle, although designers and soldiers in several countries were inspired by the Holt. This is a British film with German captions.
This proves the superiority on the IC engine over steam as far back as 1908. The steam powered caterpillar tractor would have easily got bogged down because of its weight and lack of horsepower.
I would say that they are definately on the right track with this new machine, but if it were me I would add maybe some type of thingy on the front like a great shovel where as I could push away dirt or maybe move snow to widen pathways for the motorcars and horse carriages and such.
There are copies of this film, with English titles, at the Media Archive for Central England (in Leicester) and at the Lincolnshire Film Archive (in Spalding, Lincolnshire). They are of rather better quality and slightly longer than this version. This one is interesting in that it is one of the versions Hornsby's made to show to foreign military attachés.
Hornsby's didn't become Caterpillar; Benjamin Holt bought Hornsby's patents and registered the name Caterpillar as a trademark in 1912.
I think the British claim only to have been the first to use tanks in battle, in 1916, followed by the French in 1917, and, eventually, the Germans, who didn't produce a working tank until 1918. Machines that looked very much like tanks were designed in France (Levavasseur), Australia (De Mole), and Austria (Burstyn) in the 10 years before WWI. Russia also produced a couple of tracked designs (Mendeleyev & Porokovskikov). Germany was actually a long way behind and built only 20 tanks during WWI.
That is wahat the Info on the right says. It looks very similar to some of the agriculture tractor designs tried out post WW2, and now seen on some historical rallys.
test in the UK, note that 'soft sand' is shown on a sign.
I am sure this was in grantham lincs. seen this on bygone grantham video
as I am from the town. also one of my great uncles may be on film.
how much could these go before refualing?
very good, interestelar, engineering surprising since that time
Why didn't I think of putting the exhaust at the front? Oh, yeah.
I believe the first Hornsby was 1904? They fished remains of a huge one out of a river in the Northwest somewheres, much to the embarassment of Caterpillar Inc. that has for decades propagated the myth that Holt invented the track steer crawler, rather than bought the rights from Hornsby, and that was after they looked over a Lombard log hauler and built their own version of a crawler. By 1908 HH Linn was travelling New England in a gas powered Lombard halftrack equipped motorhome.
Wow...wow...so great film!!! clearly show that the smart brain engineer were working hard and desing very good instrument !!to develop our world ..
Great German Engneer..
:)
watt an intersting vidio thanks
The Lombard Log Hauler had tracks in 1901 and Holt put tracks on one of their steam engines in 1904 so this can't be the worlds first tracked machine, great footage though.
I WANT one.....NOW!!!
1:28 they see me rollin', they hatin'
I'll never be an early-20th century mech. engineer building machines like these ;__;
Imagine finding this in a barn in Germany...
Cor look at the grousers on that........:-)
Nice
1908? The tracked vehicle goes back to 1770. The first to mention Caterpillar was a Russian in 1837. Holt made the first reliably operating and produced in the US.
Paul Pavlinovich Correct! Holt made a steam-powered tracklayer, which he called the "Caterpillar" and tested it in 1904.
Paul Pavlinovich w
MANN BEACHTE DIE SITZE (STÜHLE) WIE IM WOHNZIMMER :-)
Look up about "Caterpillar Challenger 65"
This led to Germany's first tank, the A7V. The first tank-on-tank battle actually happened in WWI, at Villers-Bretonneux. Three A7Vs met up with three Brit Mark IVs- but two of them were only armed with machine guns ("female.") It should have been a turkey shoot for the Germans, as the British tanks were lightly armored. But the Male Mark IV managed to knock out the lead A7V with its six-pounders, and the other two German tanks retreated.
Mark Stockman I thought the Brits were the first to utilize a tank in battle, not the Germans? I think it was called little Willie?
oh yes.. i see grandpa over there
HATTEN DIE NICHT DIE FIRMA BEST -GEKAUFT ?
...I noticed that the signs in the scenes were in English, even though the title-boards BETWEEN the scenes were in German....
Richard Rabinowitz Yeah. It was filmed in England. This is a promotional video to get sales, so they were marketing to Germany as well. I live in the town that this was made and filmed, Grantham. The company was Hornsby of Grantham.
wow
Tbf, if they had stuck some armour on that and a machine gun, it would have made a pretty decent tankette
@TELORINODELHOYO of couse he is
так руль запили не фрикционы а руль в 1908! круги нарезает, а сидит как в легковушке)
Yes, can you just imagine the impact this would have had in the early part of WW1. Why didnt any of the governments push the military application of this? It would have changed everything. Old ways die hard I guess.
Maybe had steam models before that, it's a diesel motor.
+Pedro Scotta Or maybe, instead of guessing, do the engineering thing and read, books or the (correct) comments below, or just watch the film. This film shows various Hornsby tractors including an earlier steam version, they'd been making agricultural steam tractors for years before this. And YES, Hornsby invented the track system, in Britain, before Holts bought it from him. Even the phrase "Caterpillar" was first used by British soldiers who saw Hornsby tractors c1908.
+RockinRedRover
Hi, RockinRedRover.
I hate to rain on your parade but Hornsby was a LONG way from being the first to either design or build a track system. George Cayley took out a patent for a "Universal Railway" around 1826 and John Heathcote built a steam-powered cable plowing engine on tracks around 1837. This machine actually worked and you can find the patent information for both on Google Patents.
Lombard built steam-powered log haulers on tracks from 1901:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Steam_Log_Hauler
Hornsby only ever built ONE steam-powered and that was the Hornsby Mammoth which went to the Yukon. They only powered that one by steam as a special order 'cos there was no parafin - their fuel of choice for every other tractor they built - to be had in the Yukon at that time but there was plenty of coal, which was what the Hornsby Mammoth was built to haul. That was 1910.
Benjamin Holt's photographer, a Mr Clements, coined the term 'Caterpillar' when he was photographing Holt's first tracked steamer in late 1904.
May I suggest that you take your own advice to Pedro Scotta and do your homework before posting
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Deas,
Am I to correctly to understand that the Brits and Germans were compelled to buy the License for the "Track" design for their tanks from Holt?
Hi, Diesel Fitter.
Not as I understand it. If my memory serves me rightly, the original British design was based more on the American Bullock Creeping Grip system than either Holt or Hornsby.
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
This is wrong Fyodor Abramovich Blinov of Russia invented the first tracked vehicle in 1877 and the first self propelled tracked vehicle in 1896
Hello, Edward Gregg.
And you are also wrong. One John Heathcote built steam-powered crawler in about 1837 that actually worked. It was a cable plowing-type machine that was designed and built to work the peat bogs. It weighed 30 tons and was 10 feet wide with the steam engine and winches built in between the tracks. There are even patent drawings that can be found by doing a Google Patent search.
BTW, I posted this information on here about this same video around a year ago - - - if you had bothered to check.
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Блинов создал первый гусеничный движетель, управляемый с помощью изменения скорости гусениц. Сам по себе первый гусеничный движитель был запатентован и построен за 40 лет до того.
They had a steering wheel. WHY?
FALSE this isn't the real first tracked tractor that one was British, this is a German one. The real one was sold to Canada to transport coal. It isn't even a Hornsby or a Holt.
Simon Van Doesburg This is an English Hornsby Tractor. Filmed in England and made in Grantham (my town). It's a marketing video, trying to make sales in Germany.