The World's First Caterpillar Track (1908)

[MrRaidonM]

wow

[crazylibrarian62]

there is 12 minutes video footage bw held at grantham library archives of this 1908 trial - in english!

[Rickinsf]

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.

[peepeevagi]

1:22 They see me rollin, they hatin... xD

[boonthip100]

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.. :)

[magmadragonz]

3:20 - Steam tank, hell yeah....

[bluemoondiadochi]

LOL at 1:40 that last horse looked behind like thinking: ugh, i wish i had one of these!

[gaudeamus66]

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!

[dplant8961]

Hi, Folks. Skidooeverest340's comments are just a little off target. The earliest mention that I have been able to find for a tracked vehicle dates back to 1837 in, I think, Scotland, where a tracked machine was built to work in marshes and bogs. It became bogged and sank out of sight on the very first day it was used.

Hornsby did not invent the crawler track and nor did Holt, Lombard or Phoenix. I read there were 100 patent applications for tracked vehicles by 1900.

[docstumusic]

Was this filmed in Grantham, Lincolnshire? One of the towed trucks possibly has a covert with Grantham painted on it.

[29jug11]

I WANT one.....NOW!!!

[LinnTractorNut]

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.

[hhhhhhyy]

how much could these go before refualing?

[GWR4079]

this is a hornsby

[TELORINODELHOYO]

the guy driving that tank is my girlfriend's grandpa

[bacon2boy]

@TELORINODELHOYO of couse he is

[matrox]

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.

[rwhendrix]

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.

[trahcceb]

@rwhendrix they did, there was tracked tanks in WWI, just not so successful due to the weight of all their armour and recovery was 90% impossible, once stuck in mud.

[ilastarwow]

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzok :) sleepy add!

[sloveniaANDusa]

das ist super-/carsko/ wow

[HengistR]

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.

[sluggoweezul]

R. Hornsby & Sons of Grantham England, patented the crawler track principle in 1904.

It was used on Steam tractors for farming. There is at least one remaining working in Canada.

The Hornsby company later became Caterpillar.

[Skid00everest340]

and the british thinks that they invented the catepillar tractor ha FAIL!!! .AND NO it came from germany but a american invented the track system and the germans tock the idea little forward. Then a American tock armor plates on a tractor and then a brittish put a machine gun on it. Then they just built a new chasie and put canons on that! But still the Germans ivented the first vehicle that had the tarrain abelities as a "tank".

And the catepillar can replace horse, if you got enoght gas....

[HengistR]

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.

[HengistR]

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.

[MrUKIDDING]

@Skid00everest340 get your facts right lol you looking a bit stupid m8!.

[TheCrawlertrack]

imperialist....

[MacOtaku73]

Tracked vehicles?

They'll never replace the horse.I tell you!

Amazing video,thanks for that.

[beiraguy]

watt an intersting vidio thanks

[angrysamoan666]

Churchill tried to push the tank but Lord Kitchener hated it, then Haig never knew the best way to use it.

The British got it right in the end, but its hard to see why nobody recognise its possibilities earlier with this Hornsby tank

[Yep147]

I can't believe this wasn't utilized in WWI..!

[riotagus]

It was !!  by the british !

[sp3ccylad]

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.

[vazahafromtana]

That's the first time I've seen a tracked vehicle with a steering wheel.

[Spanrz]

Look up about "Caterpillar Challenger 65"

[246DEK74]

and then came the tank

[spilsby88]

I was a little confused at first but on careful inspection it is obvious that this is actually filmed in Britain for a German audience.

[applecounty]

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.

[spilsby88]

Thanks for pointing that out; I had neglected to click on 'more info'.

[terryvision42]

BFI do upload a eclectic mixs of archive material and that's why it makes it one of my favourite subscriptions.

[MhicWombat]

Wow. In many ways this reminds me of the life of my grandfather, a veteran of the Boer War and WWI -- he went from the era of horse & buggy to seeing rocket launches, Thank you, BFI, for the amazing work.

[mistral789]

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.