Editing Amphibious vehicle (section)

== Early history ==
[[File:Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Conestoga Wagon (8307591214).jpg|right|thumb|A conestoga wagon]]
Some of the earliest known amphibious vehicles were amphibious carriages, the invention of which is credited to the Neapolitan [[polymath]] Prince [[Raimondo di Sangro]] of Sansevero<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museosansevero.it/en/raimondo-di-sangro/experiments-and-inventions |title=Raimondo di Sangro - Experiments and Inventions |website=Museo [[Cappella Sansevero]] |access-date=13 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314035258/http://www.museosansevero.it/en/raimondo-di-sangro/experiments-and-inventions |archive-date=14 March 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> in July 1770 or earlier, or [[Samuel Bentham]] whose design of 1781 was built in June 1987.

The [[conestoga wagon]], a type of a heavy covered wagon, was popular during the 18th and 19th century in the United States and Canada. The wagon was designed in such a way as to be able to cross rivers and streams.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/places/conestoga-wagon.htm | title=Conestoga Wagon Replica (U.S. National Park Service) }}</ref>

[[File:Oliver Evans - Steam carriage.jpg|thumb|Amphibious steam-powered carriage designed by Oliver Evans (1775–1819)]]
The first known self-propelled amphibious vehicle, a steam-powered wheeled dredging barge, named the ''Orukter Amphibolos'', was conceived and built by [[United States]] inventor [[Oliver Evans]] in 1805, although it is disputed to have successfully travelled over land or water under its own steam.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2006/4/2006_4_16_print.shtml  |title=Was This America's First Steamboat, Locomotive, and Car? |last=Lubar |first=Steven |magazine=[[American Heritage of Invention & Technology|Invention & Technology]] |date=Spring 2006 |volume=21 |issue=4 |publisher=American Heritage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622133304/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2006/4/2006_4_16_print.shtml |archive-date=22 June 2009 |access-date=11 August 2014}}</ref>

Inventor [[Gail Borden]], better known for [[condensed milk]], designed and tested a [[sail]]-powered [[wagon]] in 1849. On testing, it reportedly tipped over 50 feet (15&nbsp;m) from shore, from an apparent lack of [[Sailing ballast|ballast]] to counteract the force of the wind in the sail.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.houstonhistory.com/citizens/houstonians/history8d.htm |title=Great Citizens - Gail Borden |website=Houston History |access-date=13 May 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213183417/http://www.houstonhistory.com/citizens/houstonians/history8d.htm |archive-date=13 February 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Alligator boat 1.jpg|thumb|[[Alligator boat|Alligator tug]] ''Bonnechere'', 1907]]
In the 1870s, logging companies in eastern Canada and the northern United States developed a steam-powered amphibious tug called an [[Alligator boat|"Alligator"]] which could cross between lakes and rivers. The most successful Alligator tugs were produced by the firm of West and Peachey in [[Simcoe, Ontario]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/articles/alligator/index.cfm |title=The Alligator or Steam Powered Amphibious Warping Tug |last=Owen |first=Bryant |date=1999 |magazine=Duckworks |access-date=11 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080630024409/http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/articles/alligator/index.cfm |archive-date=30 June 2008}}</ref>

Until the late 1920s, the efforts to unify a boat and an [[automobile]] mostly came down to simply putting wheels and axles on a boat hull, or getting a rolling [[chassis]] to float by blending a boat-like hull with the car's frame.<ref name="Pohl">Pohl, 1998.</ref> One of the first reasonably well-documented cases was the 1905 amphibious petrol-powered carriage of T. Richmond (Jessup, Iowa, USA). Just like the world's [[Benz Patent Motorwagen|first petrol-powered automobile]] (1885, Carl Benz), it was a three-wheeler. The single front wheel provided direction, both on land and in the water. A three-cylinder petrol combustion-engine powered the oversized rear wheels. In order to get the wheels to provide propulsion in the water, fins or buckets would be attached to the rear wheel spokes. Remarkably the boat-like hull was one of the first integral bodies ever used on a car.<ref name="Pohl"/>

Since the 1920s, many diverse amphibious vehicles designs have been created for a broad range of applications, including recreation, expeditions, search & rescue, and military, leading to a myriad of concepts and variants. In some of them, the amphibious capabilities are central to their purpose, whereas in others they are only an expansion to what has remained primarily a watercraft or a land vehicle. The design that came together with all the features needed for a practical all-terrain amphibious vehicle was by Peter Prell of New Jersey. His design, unlike others, could operate not only on rivers and lakes but the sea and did not require firm ground to enter or exit the water. It combined a boat-like hull with tank-like tracks. In 1931, he tested a scaled down version of his invention.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ycDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70 |title=Strange Craft at Home on Water or Land |magazine=[[Popular Science]] |date=1 April 1931 |page=70 |publisher=Bonnier Corporation }}</ref>