Very often it used to happen like this: a man made a drawing with ink drawing pen with a drawing pen (before, everyone knew what a drawing pen was, now my students do not know this!) And … he had such thoughts - "I am an inventor, I can offer something interesting for production." There was even such a profession - "draftsman" - who himself could not do anything, but he drew like a god! However, there were also engineers who either drew well themselves, or hired draftsmen, and now the "drawings" were ready, on the basis of which they were declared "creators", "inventors", "founders". But people who are not versed in technology did not ask: where are the calculations of specific pressure, power, friction losses in the transmission, weight distribution … The cinema also gave us a visual image of such "drawings" - the scout clicks a "match" camera over the sheets of paper and here already the "blueprints" of the secret German tank on the table at the Soviet command. Remember “Captain Kloss” (Stanislav Mikulsky) from “Stavka More Than Life” … There it was! In fact, this is only a general scheme and it does little for technical implementation in metal! Drawings are a railway WAGON of sheets of different formats, these are steel grade numbers, rolled profiles, there is so much that you cannot steal and reshoot it so easily!
Model of Nestfield's "tank".
That is why the project of the famous "Mendeleev's tank" is nothing more than a game of the mind, and his popular "drawings" that have gone around a lot of publications are nothing more than … schemes that really mean very little. Well, as an example that this is how it is, let's look at the "drawings" and get acquainted with the development of the little-known in our country and even in his homeland engineer Robert Francis McFay - "the creator of the world's first amphibious tank".
The talented Scottish-Canadian engineer and aviator began by flying three planes between 1909 and 1911, traveled extensively, and saw Holt tractors in action on plantations in the West Indies before World War I. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that when the war began, he became an ardent admirer of equipping the army with armored vehicles and began to design it himself!
At first, he used his connections in the RAF to contact military officials, who, however, were decidedly indifferent to his ideas. Then he contacted Commodore Murray Sueter at the RNK and told him his idea that wheeled UAVs should be replaced with tracked "track layers". MacFay's proposal was discussed along with the ideas of other officers, along with the proposal of Captain Thomas Hetherington, who proposed his famous tank project on huge wheels.
McPhee drafted a memo, which he sent to Suater in November 1914, outlining how six Holt tractors would be able to tow an 85-ton transporter with a 12-inch naval gun over rough roads with great ease. Suether told MalFay that the transportation of the guns was a matter of the future, and most importantly, now "tanks".
By February 1915, Hetherington's project had already been rejected, and W. Churchill formed the "Committee of Landships", at the first meeting of which on February 22, 1915, McPhee was present. He asked Suater for … money (what else could an engineer ask for for his work?) And received £ 700 from him (a large amount at that time). And he, in turn, instructed Nesfield & McKenzie, a small engineering firm in West London, to provide McFly with all the necessary technical assistance.
After that, he took the old truck as a basis for experiments, and Albert Nesfield had to put it on the tracks. Little is known about this "car", but Nesfield later claimed that McPhee used two pairs of tracks in his design, with the front pair being the steering. Nesfield, meanwhile, developed his project with one pair of tracks, with individual drive for each, which made it possible to brake and turn by slowing down their movement. He also built an electrically powered model that used bicycle chains for the tracks. A photograph of the model shows that the result is a chassis very similar to modern samples of tracked propellers, if not in design, then at least in the shape of the bypass!
After that, Nesfield and McPhee quarreled, and very much. If anything, Suether described their encounter as "regular dog fights." Suether asked a certain Boothby to try to convince MacFye and Nesfield to settle their differences, but in vain. But … none of these attempts came of it, and Suater in August 1915 ordered the work on their project no longer be financed. McPhee was offended that he was "misunderstood" and in November 1915 he resigned, claiming that his designs had been stolen from him. At the Landships Committee, Albert Stern was very happy about this, as he was "a very troublesome guy" and "the most impossible person he has ever worked with." Like this! And we think that the British did nothing but create their own tank! No! They made squabbles like that, and settled scores, and swindled, and "squeezed" money, that is, "just lived", as all people live!
Stern had another meeting with McFay in December 1916 (this is how the scene in modern cinema is seen: "I'll give you another chance!"). He asked him to show his designs, promising that he would get a fair trial, but MacFay refused. That is, I did not use my last chance. But he carried out a vicious campaign of vilification against Nesfield, which ended only in 1919. So, again, there they argued about priority, almost like the same Porokhovshchikov with us, who tried to prove through the newspapers that the first tank was a Russian invention. But he at least stood up for the country, but McPhee was simply seeking recognition of his own importance.
Ultimately, despite his undoubted engineering ability, McPhee's contribution to the development of armored vehicles, in addition to his important statements at the first meeting of the Committee, turned out to be much less than it could have been. The reason for this is that he had a quarrelsome character, was too touchy and not restrained in language.
Revised project of August 19, 1915: "Experimental armored track". As you can clearly see, the car looks like "Little Willie", although the weapons are not shown on it. But the rear steering wheels and the propeller are shown. However, the wheels, unlike the "Willie", do not have pressure springs and press on the ground only with their own weight. And it is unlikely that their pressure would have been enough to force this tank to turn. And again - how to seal it?
Well, what did McPhee and Nestfield come up with and what "blueprints" did they draw? In any case, McPhee's patents prove that he … was the first in the world to come up with an amphibious tank on three tracks. Moreover, the front was steering and could rotate both vertically and horizontally. Moreover, if we look at his diagram, we will see that he does not even show the drive of the tracks from the engine! Yes, there are bevel gears for driving the drive wheels both on the front track and on the two rear ones, but … the engine itself is not shown in the diagram. "If we abstract from the complexities of technical implementation … then …" But how to abstract from them?
Further on the diagram there is a reclining propeller. But how it will be reclined and fixed is not shown. McPhee's "tank" itself looks very narrow, that is, on the battlefield it could easily overturn. The front steering track has a very sophisticated steering gear and lifting system to overcome obstacles. Although he even provided for her front armor and a barbed wire cutter! However, the most important and insidious question is how to seal this whole mechanism so that this "monster" could swim ?!
Amphibious tank McPhee. Scheme.
The location of the weapons is not shown either. It seems that there is a place for it in the front. But what about the weight distribution? The car is floating! That is, all this is nothing more than technical speculation, which has no real value!
Four-track tank.
Finally, his latest development: a four-track tank. Moreover, the second front track on it was rotary, and all four had a drive. That is, unlike the Mother tank, McFay's car did not have a caterpillar rim around the hull, but thanks to the front drive track, he could take very steep obstacles. There could be four combat posts on this tank at once! Two in the front and two in the back, not to mention the tower at the top. But … how was the engine, fuel tanks, transmission located on it? That is, this project was even more raw than the first two! And what is there to be proud of? By your ability to draw well such schemes? For an engineer of those years, this was the norm, the basic level of engineering education and technical literacy! So it is not surprising that in the same England no one considers McFay's projects to be breakthroughs and does not refer to the creators of the world's first amphibious tank (even at the project level!)!
