1.
William Foster & Co.
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William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and usually just called Fosters of Lincoln. The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a mill in Lincoln. William Foster then proceeded to start small scale manufacturing of mill machinery, the mill was converted to an iron foundry by 1856, thus becoming the original Wellington Foundry. During the First World War they built the first tanks for the British Army, the company was known for producing threshing machines, regarded as among the best available. They also made traction engines, steam tractors such as the Foster Wellington, Foster were briefly involved in a deal to market tractors built by Daimler in Britain but this was dropped after the war. Fosters, as builders of agricultural machinery, were involved in the production, an example of one of the first tanks that were used in the First World War is preserved and on display in the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. The tanks were described as Water carriers for Mesopotania during production for security, the firm used the symbol of the tank after the war on other machinery they built as a trade mark. Gwynnes Limited manufactured centrifugal pumps from the mid 19th century in Hammersmith until acquired by Foster & Co. in 1927, pump production was moved to Lincoln in 1930 and the company renamed Foster Gwynnes. Pump production ended in Lincoln in 1968, in 1964 vertical pumps were supplied to the Deeping fen IDB for the pumping station at Pode Hole, where they remain in use. The company was acquired by W H Allen & Co in 1960, history of the tank - General details of development & background Marshall, Sons & Co. - Fellow Lincoln firm, and builder of Threshing machines, ruston & Hornsby - Fellow Lincoln Firm, builders of steam engines Richard Garrett & Sons - Competitor for Showmans engines. Clayton & Shuttleworth - Fellow Lincoln firm and builders of steam engines, there is a traction engine in both Rev W Awdrys Railway Series and The Thomas & Friends TV Series based on one of these named Trevor. DVD on Fosters machines Photos of preserved Foster Steam Engines - Traction Time
2.
Lewis gun
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The Lewis gun is a First World War-era light machine gun of US design that was perfected and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by British and British Empire troops during the war. With its distinctive barrel cooling shroud and top-mounted pan magazine, the Lewis served to the end of the Korean War and it was also widely used as an aircraft machine gun, almost always with the cooling shroud removed, during both world wars. The Lewis gun was invented by U. S. Army colonel Isaac Newton Lewis in 1911, Lewis became frustrated with trying to persuade the U. S. Army to adopt his design, so, retired from the army. He left the United States in 1913 and went to Belgium, Lewis had been working closely with British arms manufacturer the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited in an effort to overcome some of the production difficulties of the weapon. Lewis and his moved to England before 1914, away from possible seizure in the event of a German invasion. The Belgian army acquired only a handful of his guns and they were not on general issue in the Belgian Army, and were used only in a few forays by motor vehicles, south of Antwerp, against the flank of the invading German Army. The onset of the First World War increased demand for the Lewis gun, the design was officially approved for service on 15 October 1915 under the designation Gun, Lewis. 303-cal. No Lewis guns were produced in Belgium during the war, all manufacture was carried out by BSA in England, Savage did make Lewis guns in.303 British calibre, though. The Model 1916 and Model 1917 were exported to Canada and the United Kingdom, the Savage Model 1917 was generally produced in. 30-06 caliber. A number of guns were supplied to the UK under lend-lease during the Second World War. The Lewis gun was gas operated, a portion of the expanding propellant gas was tapped off from the barrel, driving a piston to the rear against a spring. The piston was fitted with a vertical post at its rear which rode in a helical cam track in the bolt and this allowed the three locking lugs at the rear of the bolt to engage in recesses in the guns body to lock it into place. The post also carried a fixed firing pin, which protruded through an aperture in the front of the bolt, only the Royal Navy retained the tube on their deck-mounted AA-configuration Lewis guns. The Lewis gun used a pan magazine holding 47 or 97 rounds, pan magazines hold the rounds, bullet-noses inwards toward the center, in a radial fan. Unlike the more common drum magazines, which hold the rounds parallel to the axis and are fed by spring tension, the Lewis magazine was driven by a cam on top of the bolt which operated a pawl mechanism via a lever. The operating rod had a toothed underside, which engaged with a cog which wound the spring, when the gun fired, the bolt recoiled and the cog was turned, tightening the spring until the resistance of the spring had reached the recoil force of the bolt assembly. At that moment, as the gas pressure in the fell, the spring unwound, turning the cog. As with a spring, the Lewis gun recoil spring had an adjustment device to alter the recoil resistance for variations in temperature
3.
Daimler Company
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The company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of Daimler, the company was awarded a Royal Warrant to provide cars to the British Monarch in 1902, it lost this privilege in the 1950s after being supplanted by Rolls-Royce. In 1960, BSA sold Daimler to Jaguar Cars, which continued Daimlers line, Jaguar was then merged into the British Motor Corporation in 1966 and British Leyland in 1968. Under these companies, Daimler became a trim level for Jaguar cars except for the 1968-1992 Daimler DS420 limousine. Jaguar was split off from British Leyland in 1984 and bought by the Ford Motor Company in 1989, Ford stopped using the Daimler name on Jaguars in 2007 selling Jaguar to Tata Motors in 2008. Tata bought the Daimler and Lanchester brands with Jaguar, but has not used them so far, engineer Frederick Richard Simms was supervising construction of an aerial cableway of his own design for the Bremen Exhibition in 1889 when he saw tiny railcars powered by Gottlieb Daimlers motors. Simms introduced Daimler’s motors to England in 1890 to power launches, in an agreement dated 18 February 1891, he obtained British and Empire rights for the Daimler patents. That month, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft lent Simms a motorboat with a 2 hp engine, in June 1891 Simms had set up a London office at 49 Leadenhall Street and founded Simms & Co consulting engineers. In May 1892, the motorboat, which Simms had named Cannstatt, hendriks severed his connections with Simms & Co. in February 1893. Simms Daimler-related work was moved into a new company, The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited. Following the success of Daimler-powered Peugeots and Panhards at the 1894 Paris–Rouen competition, Simms decided to open a car factory. That month, he arranged for the syndicate to receive a ten percent commission on all British sales of Daimler-powered Panhard & Levassor cars, at the same meeting, Simms produced the first licence to operate a car under the Daimler patents. It was for a 3½ hp Panhard & Levassor that had bought in France by The Honourable Evelyn Ellis. On 3 July, after Ellis bought the licence, the car was landed at Southampton and driven by Ellis to Micheldever near Winchester where Ellis met Simms, Ellis later drove it on to Malvern. This was the first long journey by motorcar in Britain, Simms later referred to the car as a Daimler Motor Carriage. Simms asked his friend Daimler to be consulting engineer to the new enterprise, investor Harry John Lawson had set out to use The British Motor Syndicate Limited to monopolise motor car production in Britain by taking over every patent he could. Welcomed by Simms, the negotiations proceeded on the basis that new company should acquire The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern, including the name. In order that the Daimler licences could be transferred from Simms to the new company, by this time, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach had withdrawn from Daimler Motoren Gesellschafts business to concentrate on cars and engines for them
4.
Sleeve valve
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The sleeve valve is a type of valve mechanism for piston engines, distinct from the usual poppet valve. Sleeve valve engines saw use in a number of pre-World War II luxury cars and in the United States in the Willys-Knight car, a sleeve valve takes the form of one or more machined sleeves. It fits between the piston and the wall in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine where it rotates and/or slides. Ports in the side of the sleeves come into alignment with the cylinders inlet, the first successful sleeve valve was patented by Charles Yale Knight, and used twin alternating sliding sleeves. It was used in luxury automobiles, notably Willys, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, Minerva, Panhard, Peugeot. Mors adopted double sleeve-valve engines made by Minerva. The higher oil consumption was heavily outweighed by the quietness of running, early poppet-valve systems required decarbonization at very low mileages. A small number of used a cuff sleeve in the cylinder head instead of the cylinder proper. This design also had the advantage of not having the piston within the sleeve, on the downside, this arrangement limited the size of the ports to that of the cylinder head, whereas in-cylinder sleeves could have much larger ports. The main advantages of the engine are, High volumetric efficiency due to very large port openings. Sir Harry Ricardo also demonstrated better mechanical and thermal efficiency, the size of the ports can be readily controlled. Good exhaust scavenging and controllable swirl of the inlet air/fuel mixture in single-sleeve designs, when the intake ports open, the air/fuel mixture can be made to enter tangentially to the cylinder. A problem with high-speed engines that use poppet valves is that as engine speed increases, the speed at which the valve moves also has to increase. This in turn increases the loads involved due to the inertia of the valve, large poppet valves that allow good air-flow have considerable mass and require a strong spring to overcome their inertia when closing. At higher engine speeds, the spring may be unable to close the valve before the next opening event. This effect, called valve float can result in the valve being struck by the top of the rising piston. In addition, camshafts, push-rods, and valve rockers can be eliminated in a sleeve valve design, in an aircraft engine, this provided desirable reductions in weight and complexity. Longevity, as demonstrated in early applications of the Knight engine. Prior to the advent of leaded gasolines, poppet-valve engines typically required grinding of the valves, Sleeve valves did not suffer from the wear and recession caused by the repetitive impact of the poppet valve against its seat
5.
British heavy tanks of World War I
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British heavy tanks were a series of related armoured fighting vehicles developed by the UK during the First World War. The Mark I was the worlds first tank, tracked and armed armoured vehicle, the name tank was initially a code name to maintain secrecy and disguise its true purpose. The type was developed in 1915 to break the stalemate of trench warfare and it could survive the machine gun and small-arms fire in No Mans Land, travel over difficult terrain, crush barbed wire, and cross trenches to assault fortified enemy positions with powerful armament. Tanks also carried supplies and troops, due to the height necessary for this shape, an armed turret would have made the vehicle too tall and unstable. Instead, the armament was arranged in sponsons at the side of the vehicle. The prototype, named Mother, mounted a 6-pounder cannon and a Hotchkiss machine gun at each side, later, subtypes were produced with machine guns only, which were designated Female, while the original version with the protruding 6-pounder was called Male. The Mark I entered service in August 1916, and was first used in action on the morning of 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Somme Offensive. With the exception of the few interim Mark II and Mark III tanks, it was followed by the largely similar Mark IV, the Mark IV was used en masse, about 460 tanks, at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. The Mark V, with an improved transmission, entered service in mid-1918. More than two thousand British heavy tanks were produced, manufacture was discontinued at the end of the war. The Mark I was a development of Little Willie, the tank built for the Landships Committee by Lieutenant Walter Wilson. It was designed by Wilson in response to problems with tracks, the reworked design was also able to meet the Army requirement to be able to cross an 8 ft wide trench. A mockup of Wilsons idea was shown to the Landships Committee when they viewed the demonstration of Little Willie, at about this time, the Armys General Staff was persuaded to become involved and supplied representatives to the Committee. Through these contacts Army requirements for armour and armament made their way into the design, the prototype Mark I, ready in December 1915, was called Mother. Mother was successfully demonstrated to the Landships Committee in early 1916, it was run around a course simulating the front including trenches, parapets, craters, the demonstration was repeated on 2 February before the cabinet ministers and senior members of the Army. Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, was sceptical, lloyd George, at the time Minister of Munitions, arranged for his Ministry to be responsible for tank production. General Haig sent a staff officer Hugh Elles to act as his liaison to the Supply Committee, Swinton would become the head of the new arm, and Elles the commander of the tanks in France. The first order for tanks was placed on 12 February 1916, fosters built 37, and Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon, and Finance Company, of Birmingham,113, a total of 150
6.
The Tank Museum
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The Tank Museum is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about 1 mile north of the village of Wool and 12 miles west of the port of Poole. The collection traces the history of the tank, with almost 300 vehicles on exhibition from 26 countries it is the largest collection of tanks and the third largest collection of armoured vehicles in the world. It includes Tiger 131, the only working example of a German Tiger I tank and a British First World War Mark I and it is the museum of the Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps and a registered charity. Bovington Camp, in which the museum is located, trains most sections of the British Army in tracked-vehicle driving as well as repairing and maintaining the vehicles in its workshops, in 1916 the British War Office established the Bovington camp as a tank crew training facility. At that time the army was introducing tanks into the First World War in an attempt to break the stagnation of trench warfare, in 1919 the tanks returned to Bovington from France. Many of them were fit only for scrap, a small number of the least damaged vehicles were put to one side so that tank crews and designers could have an idea of the tanks early heritage. In 1923 the writer Rudyard Kipling visited Bovington and recommended a museum should be set up, the collection grew greatly after the Second World War, as many Allied and captured Axis tanks were added. In 1947 it was opened to the general public, the Tank Museum has continued to expand and today it is primarily seen as a means of educating and entertaining the general public, with the exhibition being geared in this direction. Many of the tanks are in working order and can be seen in action throughout summer months in special displays. The museum holds an annual TankFest display of their operating vehicles, in 2012, the museums historian David Fletcher, who had been an employee since 1982, was made an MBE for his services to the history of armoured warfare. World War I Hall Along with “The Trench Experience” this hall has recently been refurbished & renamed, as well as containing the majority of the museums World War I tanks it now tells the story of men who crewed the first tanks between 1916 and 1918. The Lawrence of Arabia exhibition is no longer in the hall, featured tanks, Mark I tank, IV, V, IX & Mark VIII Libertytanks. Inter War Hall Refurbished in 2014, this hall now explores the rise of the tank, featured tanks, Vickers A1E1 Independent, Peerless Armoured Car & Vickers Light tank, Mark II. World War II Hall The biggest section, with tanks from most nations involved in the conflict and this hall contains the Battlegroup Afghanistan exhibition. The men of the Royal Armoured Corps who have involved in some of the fiercest fighting since World War Two. The hall also contains a Conqueror, Chieftain, Challenger 1, the newly installed children’s soft play area is also located there. British Steel Hall Explores the design & technology that goes into making tanks, there is a mock production line of Centurions, as well as prototype and experimental vehicles
7.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
8.
Lincoln, England
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Lincoln is a cathedral city and the county town of Lincolnshire, within the East Midlands of England. The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a 2012 population of 94,600, the 2011 census gave the entire urban area of Lincoln a population of 130,200. Lincoln developed from the Roman town of Lindum Colonia, which developed from an Iron Age settlement, Lincolns major landmarks are Lincoln Cathedral, a famous example of English Gothic architecture, and Lincoln Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle. The city is home to the University of Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste University. See Lincoln City F. C. for Lincoln City Football Club, the earliest origins of Lincoln can be traced to the remains of an Iron Age settlement of round wooden dwellings that have been dated to the 1st century BC. This settlement was built by a pool in the River Witham at the foot of a large hill. The extent of original settlement is unknown as its remains are now buried deep beneath the later Roman and medieval ruins. The Celtic name Lindon was subsequently Latinised to Lindum and given the title Colonia when it was converted into a settlement for army veterans, the conversion to a colonia was made when the legion moved on to York in AD71. It became a flourishing settlement, accessible from the sea both through the River Trent and through the River Witham. Subsequently, however, the town and its waterways fell into decline, by the close of the 5th century the city was largely deserted, although some occupation continued under a Praefectus Civitatis, for Saint Paulinus visited a man of this office in Lincoln in AD629. During this period the Latin name Lindum Colonia was shortened in Old English to become first Lindocolina, after the first destructive Viking raids, the city once again rose to some importance, with overseas trading connections. After the establishment of the Danelaw in 886, Lincoln became one of the Five Boroughs in the East Midlands, excavations at Flaxengate reveal that this area, deserted since Roman times, received new timber-framed buildings fronting a new street system in about 900. Lincoln experienced an explosion in its economy with the settlement of the Danes. By 950, however, the banks of the Witham were newly developed with the Lower City being resettled and the suburb of Wigford quickly emerging as a major trading centre. In 1068, two years after the Norman conquest, William I ordered Lincoln Castle to be built on the site of the former Roman settlement, for the strategic reasons. The rebuilt Lincoln Minster, enlarged to the east at each rebuilding, was on a magnificent scale, its crossing tower crowned by a spire reputed to have been 525 ft high, the highest in Europe. When completed the central of the three spires is widely accepted to have succeeded the Great Pyramids of Egypt as the tallest man-made structure in the world, when Magna Carta was drawn up in 1215, one of the witnesses was Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln. One of only four surviving originals of the document is preserved in Lincoln Castle, theologian William de Montibus was the head of the cathedral school and chancellor until his death in 1213
9.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
10.
Manilkara bidentata
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Manilkara bidentata is a species of Manilkara native to a large area of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Common names include bulletwood, balatá, ausubo, massaranduba, balatá is a large tree, growing to 30–45 m tall. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, entire, and 10–20 cm long, the flowers are white, and are produced at the beginning of the rainy season. The fruit is a berry, 3–5 cm in diameter. Its latex is used industrially for products such as chicle, the latex is extracted in the same manner in which sap is extracted from the rubber tree. It is then dried to form an inelastic rubber-like material and it is almost identical to gutta-percha, and is sometimes called gutta-balatá. Balatá was often used in the production of high-quality golf balls, balatá-covered balls have a high spin rate, but do not travel as far as most balls with a Surlyn cover. Due to the nature of the material the golf club strikes. While once favored by professional and low-handicap players, they are now obsolete, replaced by newer Surlyn, today, Brazil is the largest producer of Massaranduba, where it is cut in the Amazon rainforest. The tree is a hardwood with a red heart, which is used for furniture, locals often refer to it as bulletwood for its extremely hard wood, which is so dense that it does not float in water. Drilling is necessary to drive nailed connections, in trade, it is occasionally called brazilwood. The fruit, like that of the related sapodilla, is edible, though its heartwood may present in a shade of purple, Manilkara bidentata should not be confused with another tropical tree widely known as purpleheart, Peltogyne pubescens. This timber is being used to produce outdoor funiture and is being marketed as Pacific Jarrah in Australia
11.
QF 2-pounder naval gun
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The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 40-millimetre British autocannon, used as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing. This QF 2-pounder was not the gun as the Ordnance QF2 pounder, used by the British Army as an anti-tank gun. The first gun to be called a pom-pom was the 37 mm Nordenfelt-Maxim or QF 1-pounder introduced during the Second Boer War and it fired a shell one pound in weight accurately over a distance of 3,000 yd. The barrel was water-cooled, and the shells were belt-fed from a 25-round fabric belt, the Boers used them against the British, who, seeing their utility, had the design copied by Vickers, who were already producing Maxim guns. During the First World War, it was used in the trenches of the Western Front against aircraft, the first naval pom-pom was the QF1. 5-pdr Mark I, a piece with a calibre of 37 mm and a barrel 43 calibres long. This was trialed in the Arethusa-class light cruisers HMS Arethusa and Undaunted, but did not enter service, being replaced instead by a larger weapon. The QF 2-pounder Mark II was essentially a version of the QF1 pounder Maxim gun produced by Vickers. It was a 40 mm calibre gun with a water-cooled barrel and it was ordered in 1915 by the Royal Navy as an anti-aircraft weapon for ships of cruiser size and below. The original models fired from hand-loaded fabric belts, although these were replaced by steel-link belts. This scaling-up process was not entirely successful, as it left the mechanism rather light, in 1918, one example of this weapon was experimentally mounted on the upper envelope of His Majestys Airship 23r. Surviving weapons were out of storage to see service in World War II, mainly on board ships such as naval trawlers, Motor Boats. It was used almost exclusively in the single-barrel, unpowered pedestal mountings P Mark II except for a number of weapons on the mounting Mark XV. These were too heavy to be of any use at sea, calibre,40 mm L/39 Total length,96 inches. Length of bore,62 inches Rifling, Polygroove, plain section,54.84 inches, Weight of gun & breech assembly,527 lb Shell Weight,2 lb. HE. Rate of Fire,200 rpm Effective Range,1,200 yd Muzzle Velocity,1920 ft/s Some 7,000 guns were made, the gun was also used by the Japanese as the 40 mm/62 HI Shiki. The Royal Navy had identified the need for a rapid-firing, multi-barrelled close-range anti-aircraft weapon at an early stage. Design work for such a weapon began in 1923 based on the earlier Mark II, lack of funding led to a convoluted and drawn-out design and trials history, and it was not until 1930 that these weapons began to enter service
12.
Artillery tractor
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An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked, there are two main types of artillery tractors, depending on the type of traction, wheeled and tracked. Wheeled tractors are usually variations of lorries adapted for military service, tracked tractors run on continuous track, in some cases are built on a modified tank chassis with the superstructure replaced with a compartment for the gun crew or ammunition. In addition, half-track tractors were used in the period and in World War II. This type of tractor was discontinued in the postwar. The first artillery tractors were designed prior to the outbreak of World War I, such vehicles allowed the tactical use of heavier guns to supplement the light horse drawn field guns. Horseless artillery available prior to World War I weighed 8 tons, had 70 horsepower, for example, in the British Army it allowed the heavy guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery to be used flexibly on the battlefield. In World War II the draft horse was still the most common source of power in many armies. Most nations were economically and industrially unable to fully motorise their forces, one compromise was to produce general purpose vehicles which could be used in the troop transport, logistics and prime mover roles, with heavy artillery tractors to move the heaviest guns. The British Army had fully mechanized prior to war, german forces used half-tracks as artillery tractors, such as the Sd. Kfz. Half-tracked tractors were not commonly used in this role in other nations, compared to wheeled vehicles they had better off-road capabilities, but were slower on roads and were more prone to breakdowns. However, for Germany horses remained the most common way of towing artillery throughout the war, traditional towed artillery can still be found in units where complexity and weight are liabilities, e. g. airmobile, amphibious and other light units. In such units, where transport is usually limited, any available transport can double as artillery tractors in order to reposition guns when needed. For example, engineer vehicles of a different primary purpose such as the U. S, marines Light Capacity Rough Terrain Forklift, a versatile telehandler forklift capable of towing gear from either end. The following is a non-comprehensive list of tractors, classified by its traction system. 9 - Germany,1938, used for heavy towed guns such as the 24 cm Kanone 3 SdKfz 10 - Germany,1938, m4 Sherman chassis M34 Prime Mover - converted by removing recovery gear from M32B1 TRV and adding air brakes to tow heavy artillery. 24 converted by Chester Tank Depot in 1944, m35 Prime Mover - converted by removing turret from M10A1 tank destroyer and adding air brakes to tow 155 mm and 240 mm artillery. Hitachi Type 73 – Japan,1974 Self-propelled artillery Ballast tractor G-numbers TM 9-2800 military vehicles Olive-Drab website, US Army tractors
