(Image: Iliffe Press; Simms’ Motor Scout at the Richmond Automobile Club Show, June 1899)
Our Retro Fails series has delved into all manner of entertaining, eccentric inventions from wide-eyed pioneers seeking their fortunes. From flying saucers that never quite got off the ground to terrifying aerocycles (where the pilot literally stood atop the spinning rotors) and flying tanks, the 20th century enjoyed no shortage of whacky combat concepts. But what about the 19th century? Well, if the 1898 Motor Scout is anything to go by, the period that gave rise to the Technological Revolution also had its fair share of military transportation oddities.
If you think you may, at first glance, have mistaken the curious-looking contraption above for a vintage quadricycle with a gun on the front, ridden by a smartly-dressed gentleman in a bowler hat, you may rest assured; for that’s exactly what it was. British Inventor Frederick Richard Simms’ Motor Scout was, in essence, a standard quadricycle was a high-powered, armour-plated Maxim machine gun mounted between its front wheels.
(Image: AlfvanBeem; an unarmed De Dion quadricycle of 1900)
Set in a spot normally reserved for a second rider, the Maxim gun was, in theory, capable of spraying thousands of rounds of ammunition at anyone who got in the Motor Scout’s way. But the vehicle was, of course, only capable of operating on good quality roads and couldn’t easily cross rough terrain such as ploughed fields, greatly limiting its effectiveness against enemy troops advancing across, say, farmland.
Still, had opposing forces selected a battlefield based on its convenient access to the local road network, chances are that Simms’ invention would have come into its own, laying down covering fire and supporting infantry and cavalry ranks as they advanced on enemy positions. Failing that, it was still the world’s first ever armed vehicle to be powered by a petrol engine.
The 1.5 horsepower Simms’ Patent Automatic Petrol Motor with Simms magneto-electric ignition gave the Scout a range of 120 miles, and the vehicle’s civilian counterpart was available without the machine gun. It’s likely this proved to be the more viable model, though at £120 a quadricycle, the pinnacle of high technology didn’t come cheap.
(Image: Wikipedia; Simms’ Motor War Car prototype at London’s Crystal Palace in 1902)
Clearly encouraged by the success of his armed Motor Scout, Simms set his sights on a greater prize. In 1899, he designed the world’s first ever armoured car, which was built by Vickers, Sons and Maxim on a Daimler classis with a German-built Daimler motor. At 28 feet long and sporting 6 mm armour plating and two Maxim guns as opposed to one, there was little doubt from the outset that this earliest of armoured cars was poised to be a destroyer of worlds.
Aptly named the Motor War Car, leaving little ambiguity as to its purpose, only one prototype was ever built. The French Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902 (below) fared a little better, meanwhile, with a production run of two. But as eccentric as these early combat contraptions were, they paved the way for the highly destructive tanks and armoured vehicles of today.
(Image: Alain Gougaud; France’s Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902 armoured car)
Related – 10 Mighty Tank Graveyards & Abandoned Battle Vehicles of the World
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