They were long, narrow, and very strong steel
frameworks carrying the engines, and borne upon eight pairs of big pedrail
wheels, each about ten feet in diameter, each a driving wheel and set upon
axles free to swivel round a common axis.
This gave them the maximum adaptability to the contours of the
ground. They crawled level along the
ground with one foot high upon a hillock and another deep in a depression, and
they would likely hold themselves erect and steady sideways upon even a steep
hillside.[1]
H.G. Wells,
The Land Ironclads (1903)
[1] Quoted in Frank Field, British and French Writers of the First
World War: Comparative Studies in Cultural History (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2008), p. 126. H.G. Wells was the first person to anticipate the armoured tank.
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