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OUR FORTS ON WHEELS
By RENE B ACHE
A GIGANTIC SHAM
This make-believe monster was not the grownup brother of t lie British terror ihat its appearance might indicate; it was
a mere motion picture "property." Upon the chassis of a tractor, somewhat similar to the one used in the English fort
on wheels, was erected an imposing edifice of imitation armor plate—in reality only wood and tin. with pegs masquerading
as rivets. The guns it carried were no more dangerous than so many baseball bats.
T A K E an ordinary touring car.
Sheathe it with armor-plate.
Build a citadel on top of it,
with a revolving turret and a
machine-gun inside. You
have then a fort on wheels.
This is an idea on which the War Department
has been working for some
time past. We soon shall have whole
squadrons of such armored cars. Doubtless
we shall send them in numbers to
the fighting line in France.
It costs $2,000 for the alterations.
The vehicle, when used for war purposes,
is expected to have a speed of
from forty to fifty miles an hour.
sos
As a preliminary to its equipment for
war purposes the touring-car is stripped
down to chassis. Then it is clothed with
plates of ^4-inch metal—not ordinary
sheet steel, but manganese steel armor,
proof against a rifle or machine gun
bullet at one hundred yards.
The citadel with its turret is clad in
the same thickness of armor. It is expensive
stuff, this kind of steel plating:
the War Department is paying close to
$1 a pound for it. But, in buying it
under contract, no requirement is made
as to composition. All that is demanded
is that it shall pass successfully a test
to which it is subjected by firing rifle