Where would we be without the serious - honest-to-god wheel ? It let us to travel over hard - packed surfaces like dirt way of life and paved road with relaxation and swiftness , and it ’s been doing a middling effective business of it for thousands of years .
regrettably , our champion the wheel has never been a really smashing performer in mud , snow or body of water , because these media do n’t provide a firm enough surface to push against the way upstanding ground does . The want of electric resistance with these surface is actually a hindrance to traversing through them .
But over the years , several vehicle makers have come up with a solution that seem – well , downright screwy . In fact , it is screwy . These appliance move through semi - viscous fabric like C and mud in just the style a screw is propelled through wood .
In this article we ’ll search how screw - cause vehicles work , their history and how they perform under off - road conditions that would make even aHumvee"say uncle . "
If you ’re a faithful HowStuffWorks.com reviewer , then you be intimate the " practice session : " take the next page to learn about screw - drive vehicle design .
Screw-Drive Vehicles Design
Screw - drive vehicle have one feature in particular that stands out to give them their strange show . Instead of wheel , they ’re outfitted with a duo of bombastic , foresighted cylinders with screw - like thread turn tail the length of each .
Atop the cylinder sits the driver ’s and rider seating orbit or compartment , along with some case ofengine . The engine itself is mate to the screw cylinders by shafts or chains or other mechanical means to twist them in counter - rotating directions . By making the screws call on in opposite directions from one another , the vehicle can attain forward ( or slow-witted ) motion . If turned in the same direction , the screw propel the machine sideways .
These vehicles work on a principle calledArchimedes Screw . It basically holds that , by enwrap a planing machine ( flat surface ) around an enclosed pole on an side and rotating that forum , you may move liquids or light materials – " suspended solid " – upwards , against the force ofgravity . It has been thought that such devices were used to irrigate the celebrated hanging garden in ancient Babylon . Today they ’re used for irrigation , for drain submerse area so that they can be used as land and for move semitrailer - solid state , like texture … or even sewage !
While not completely immersed in mud , snow , or water , screw - campaign vehicle are able to advertise enough of the material to attain motion . So it ’s something of an Archimedes Screw in reverse . As a bonus , since the cylinders are empty , they can also act as float .
To keep in line a screwing - ride vehicle , an operator employ more power to either the left or proper screw , depending on which centering the driver require to ferment . Screw - driving vehicles can even be made to scuttle sideway , like a Cancer .
While they may be noteworthy works of engineering , let ’s face it , the screw - drive vehicles contrive thus far are likely not going to be make headway any automotive beauty contests . From the utilitarian Armstead Snow Motor , which was base on a Fordson farm tractor , to the Soviet - era ZiL-29061 , these beasts were progress to live in environments that were soaked , sticky , impassable to other vehicles and perhaps even a bit gross . So on each of these unique vehicles , the designers seemed unforced to give good flavor for huskiness .
Keep reading to learn about some of the more noted jailer - private road vehicles of the past century .
Screw-Drive Vehicles History
The record is a bit unelaborated when it comes to these automobile ' beginnings . But among the first - publish intention for a screw - driving vehicle was that of Jacob Morath , a Swiss immigrant to the United States who patented a matching - screw plowing car in 1899 .
Perhaps one of the most highly expose of these not - so - well - get laid screw - actuate machine was the Armstead Snow Machine , also get laid as the Snow Devil . A highly circulated online TV shows this screw - beat back machine performing various feat in recondite snow that confounds other way of deportation – including one poor sawhorse .
For all its skill in pie-eyed nose candy , the Armstead , a Fordsontractorconversion , obviously had some difficulty in uttermost northerly clime . The cold , wry snow of Alaska give the motorcar a concentrated clip , fit in to Alaska ’s Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum , which acquire a number of the machines and their stories [ source : Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum ] .
Military force play have also shown at least a go across interest in screw locomotion over the year . Nazi Germany look into a screw - propelled machine to voyage the snowy Eastern front – army tank would often sink in the snow and get stick . The shag - repulse simple machine , make up by Johannes Raedel , never go into production . The United States military briefly considered a jailer - drive design for its " Weasel " small transport for Special Forces during World War II before settle on a tracked design .
And during the Cold War , the then - Soviet Union ’s ZiL self-propelled society built one of the most intimidating jailor - crusade vehicle of all . The ZiL-29061 , with its angular lines and massive duplicate drive screws , looked like a vehicle straight from the apocalypse . you may find videos of it , too , circulating online . The ZiL was built to fetch Soviet astronaut after they down in places that were for other vehicles too grim , like the far reaches of Siberia .
you may even find screw - ride vehicles in use today . They ’re used in industrial and minelaying applications to traverse squashy terrain and to founder up muddy expanse of clay so that it dry out more quickly .
To notice out about screw - drive vehicle ' carrying into action capableness – what they can and ca n’t do – read the next page .
Screw-Drive Vehicles Performance
As you ’re probably figuring out , jailor - drive vehicles are highly specialized machines . As such , they ’re passing sound at performing a narrow-minded set of undertaking . And they ’re pretty lousy at everything else , like go to the supermarket to get grocery ( unless your supermarket happens to be in a swamp or a snow - cover barren ) .
In their natural elements of muck and slush , some roll in the hay - actuate car can reach forward speeds of 7.5 to 10 miles per hr ( 12 to 16 kilometers per hour ) . Just as an example , the Armstead / Fordson zipped along in abstruse and laborious coke but skin in the powdery stuff . It was also a notoriously sharp-set consumer of fuel . On the up side , it could reportedly haul ( again , on C. P. Snow ) 20 short ton ( 18,144 kilogram ) of cargo , such as log , bytowingit on one or more sleigh . Screw drives tend to work well on with child snow , in clay , even on ice or marshland . But they ca n’t rightfully be look at " all - terrain " vehicles , because ironically , on normal road they ’re pretty abysmal .
Perhaps the most celebrated use of a screw - driven vehicle in modern sentence was the interbreeding of the treacherous Bering Strait by two adventurer from the United Kingdom in 2002 ( in their second attempt ) . This " Ice Challenger " pleasure trip was the first ford of the hazardous connection between the United States and Russia by a state - base fomite .
legion hazards make the hybridization potentially deadly – ice floes that can badly damage ship , patchy ice that can collapse into the sea under the weight unit of a fomite and even diametrical bears . But Steve Brooks and Graham Stratford perform the hybridization in their Snowbird 6 – an amphibious vehicle that ply on tracks while on Charles Percy Snow and solid crank and used its outrigger - dash screws to float and propel itself through urine . The gaoler also helped the Snowbird 6 to scramble out of the water and back onto the ice .
For more information about screw - campaign vehicles and other vehicles that tread off the beaten path , follow the connectedness on the next pageboy .
