Citizens; I am less certain nowadays of something about which I was once totally certain.
I have long believed that the anchor-shaped device sometimes attached to the tracks of rhomboids from Mk II onwards was a grouser. The simpler iron-shod wooden block more often carried by Medium Mk A but occasionally by Mk IV was always, to me, a spud. But just lately, the two terms seem to have become rather interchangeable.
Is/was there an official distinction?
I am not at all convinced by this rather circular argument: "To a British tank man, the grouser is known as a spud. That's because when they appeared on the first tanks in the First World War, the plates looked just like the small shovels used to dig up potatoes. Which is why in the UK, potatoes are known as 'spuds'."
-- Edited by James H on Tuesday 16th of October 2012 11:11:15 PM
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
I can understand "spud" being used, although a complex etymology to be sure, with different and divergent shades of meaning (and perhaps some confusion with "spade" which has a quite different origin) feeding back into both it and into those other meanings with the progression of "common usage" - but the now more widely used "grouser" is quite strange, to me. I suppose the sense of "temporary anchor" - as in giving traction - gives the latter some logic. As to whether or not "spud" and "grouser" are interchangeable or quite separate, more knowledgeable tank historians will be needed.
Grouser, as a technological/mechanical term, seems to have come from the United States just some 160 years ago. I found this, the earliest reference to "grouser" seen in a (desultory, I confess) search:
History of steam boats of Fox River Valley, Millard Newbert
(in reference to Wisconsin, 1847)
David Humes, the first permanent settler of what is now the village of Omro, was the inventor of the first power boat the design of which eventually became the famous "Grouser Tug." There had been white men with transient trading posts in this locality prior to Mr. Humes arrival, but he was the first to establish a permanent home. He, apparently was also the first to have visions of a real town there, and the spirit to start the making of one.
It was the building of a town, which required the bringing of the logs up stream that brought forth the invention of the "Grouser Tug", the first one of which was powered with horses and known as "Humes Horse Boat." The principle of the ones that were to follow was much the same with the exception of refinements and steam power.
The description of one "Grouser Tug" will answer for all, as about the only difference was the size and power. The hull was usually from 80 to 100 feet in length, with about an 20 foot beam, built exceptionally strong to withstand the strain of the tow. On the forward deck was what was known as the grouser box. This was a strongly built box extending from four foot above the main deck down through the hold and bottom. It was of sufficient size to allow free passage of the grouser and hoisting cable.
The grouser was of selected timber, usually oak, and about forty-five feet in length, and twelve by sixteen inches in diameter. The lower end was well shod with a pointed iron to provide a firm grip at the river bottom when dropped. A chain cable attached to. the foot of the grouser came up through the box and lead back to a powered spool or reel by which the grouser was raised.
The first steam grouser rig was built at Berlin by Rudrick & Company, in 1854. The principle upon which they worked was (to) attach their cable to the raft, steam ahead the length of the cable, drop their grouser, and proceed to reel in the cable, as the raft was brought forward to the tug the grouser would be hoisted, the tug steaming ahead as before.
... hence my confusion/surprise at such a relatively recent term being appropriated not so long after to refer to the cleats (or similar) on tracks which seem, at first glance, to have a quite a different function. There must be an explanation ... perhaps the fascinating way in which the tracks work (discussed before in these pages, even more fascinating at the beginning of the automotive age) whereby the links (and spuds) stay in contact with a fixed point on the ground (hopefully) while the rest of the machine hauls itself over it suggested itself as an appropriate analogy to the working of the "grouser tug". Does it make sense, when it is put like that?
-- Edited by Rectalgia on Wednesday 17th of October 2012 06:43:59 AM
