See caption
Advanced design pedrail wheel climbing stairs.
Wikimedia Commons

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]

See also

References

  1. p. 443
  2. pp. 443–444

Bibliography