WHO INVENTED THE TANK?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 August 1941, Page 7

WHO INVENTED THE TANK?

The firm of Messrs Burrell and Sons of Thetford. famous for their tractioi: engines, formerly employed as thcii manager Mr Thomas Tank Burall. Tin name of the firm and that of their manager bring pronounced alike, the workmen were in the habit of referring tc Mr Burail as Mr Tank (Tank was hi: mother’s maiden name). In 1881 Mi Burall invented a traction engine wit! pat'ei attached to it vhee . and thes« engines were called tanks, after theii inventor. From this device evolved the caterpillar and eventually the moderr engine of war. When the latter wai assembled in secret "somewhere neai Thetford” it is claimed, it was callec a tank—the name of the inventor of it: original prototype. Going back many years, did not the British in the Crimean War employ i locomotive which laid its own rails? I is not easy to see how this mode o propulsion could have boon obtainec except bv a highly reticulated rail, etc. which was picked up and carried for wa r d over the engine by a series o rollers or drums —in other words, i foreshadowing of the caterpillar anc tank action. —(J. H. Rac in the 8.8. C “Listener”).