A fellow twitterer just tweeted a link to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBjlSJf4274
During the 1920s a thing called the Armstead Snow Motor was invented (shown in the great video above). The cunning device was then bolted on to a Fordson tractor to make a screw-propelled vehicle capable of travelling through snow. It became known as (unsurprisingly) the Fordson Snow Devil.
Steering was delivered in a similar way as to a machine on tracks, each cylinder receiving power from a separate clutch which, depending on the position of the steering gear, engages and disengages, giving fairly good maneuverability.
There's a bit more information on using screw-propelled machines here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw-propelled_vehicle
What happened to the Snow Devil? Why didn't it take off? Any suggestions email them to emily.padfield@rbi.co.uk
NB: There's an awful clip in the film illustrating a horse trying to get through the snow. Animal lovers look away now...
insane. seriously crazy.I posted this on my vlog. thanks so much.
The end of a feast is better than the beginning of a fight.
"Shandy! Shandy!!!!" Jimmy screamed at the dog. "Come here!" And then he heard the vehicles approaching down Millbank Lane, from where the cyclist had come. He kicked the sack bundle into the ditch and dashed across the road to where Shandy was standing, sniffing at a fence post and wagging her tail. He slipped the lead onto her collar as the first car full of soldiers drew up alongside him.