recent years, Gene van Grechen in Australia built a 40 horsepower, boxer long stroke steam engine, and installed it in a passenger car chassis.
The French furnished us with the first Renault FT light tank off their assembly line, which we were to produce as the 'Six Ton Special Tractor (a code name). In February 1918, the AEF was told that the American copy would be in production shortly and that the first six vehicles would arrive in France in April. However, in February the drawings had not yet been converted from metric measurements and not all contracts had been let. Order did not come out of chaos until October 1918, and the first few tanks did not reach France until after the Armistice in November. For heavy tanks, the British Mark VIII. design was adopted, although none had yet been bruit. The plan m tins case was to divide construction between England and the United States, with assembly to take place in a new factory to be built in France. A few of these tanks were completed in England and 100 were built at Rock Island Arsenal in the United States from parts purchased in England, but not until after the war was over. The Mark VIII. and the Six Ton Tank remained the standard U.S. tanks for years following World War I.
However, part of the confusion over tank production was due to other designs being urged on the Army. Besides the vehicles already mentioned, there was the Mark I., or Ford Three-Man Tank, built by the Hudson Motor Car Company, then owned by the Ford family. This tank had resulted from a request by the Service if Supply in France for such vehicles for security purposes. Ford also proposed the little two-man tank which utilised many standard Model T parts. This vehicle was so well received by the Ordnance Department as a machine gun carrier and tractor that 15,000 were ordered, however, only some 15 reached France before Armistice Day, 1918, and the remainder were cancelled.
In the meantime, the Allied plans for using tanks in large numbers in 1919 included provisions for keeping up the momentum of attack by means of thousands of unarmed tracklaying tractors. The British took up the responsibility for furnishing these and adopted a British Ford design known as the Newton Tractor. In addition to production in England, the British contracted with Buick and Studebaker in the United States to build these tractors, known here incorrectly as Buick and Studebaker tanks. Only the Studebakers could have been so called, because that firm also built for the British an experimental armoured cover which could be dropped over the tractor and bolted to it. The resulting vehicles resembled a miniature British heavy tank.
Bibliography
Armed Forces Journal (Periodical), April 1973.
Bloch, A., Alternate Automotive Power Systems Fossil Fuel Burning, Automotive Industries, Philadelphia,Pennsylvania , 1969.
Derr, T.S., 'The Modern Steam Car and Its Background, Los Angeles, CA, 1945.
Popular Mechanics (Periodical), 1945-1973.
Popular Science (Periodical), 1945-1973.
Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Committee on Public Works, 90th Congress, 2nd Session, Automobile Steam Engines and Other External Combustion Engines, Serial No. 90-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1968.
Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Committee on Public Works, 92nd Congress, 2nd Session, Alternates to the Gasoline-Powered Internal Combustion Engine, Serial No. 92-H33, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1972.
'The Antique Automobile' (Periodical).
Walton, J.W., 'Doble Steam Cars, Buses, Lorries and Rail Cars', Light Steam Power, Kirk Michael, Isle of Man,1970.
Correspondence with:
Gibbs-Hosick Trust (Steam Motor Systems), Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Highway Aircraft Corporation, Sidney, Nebraska.
Kinetics Corporation, Sarasora, Florida.
Victor Millman, Costa Mesa, California.
Paxve Inc., Newport Beach, California.
Michael Rosen, San Francisco, California.
Thermo-Electron Engineering Corporation, Waltham, MA.
Steamotive Inc., Tempe, Arizona.
Williams Engineering Company, Inc., Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
So..... Steam powered M4 or Tiger anyone?
