The pedrail is a type of all-terrain wheel developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Bramah Joseph Diplock. It consists of a series of “feet” (pedes in Latin) connected to pivots on a wheel. As the wheel travels, pressure exerted by springs within it increases the number of feet in contact with the ground, thus allowing the wheel to negotiate obstacles and uneven ground.[1]
Although Diplock abandoned development of the pedrail wheel in 1910, in favour of wheels rotating inside a moving belt, much like the modern caterpillar track, Winston Churchill – then First Lord of the Admiralty – in 1915 ordered a number of “landships” using pedrails.[2]
Wells, H. G. The Crystal Egg and Other Stories. Edited by Cedric Watts, Wordsworth Editions, 2017.
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