So far we have touched only upon extemporised armoured vehicles as distinct from those actually designed in the first instance for this specific duty. The first armoured car was produced as long ago as 1896. The design was published in _The Autocar_ only a week after the Act which permitted a motor car to exceed four miles an hour on British roads, and to dispense with the man walking in front with a red flag, came into force. The suggestion emanated from the late Mr. E. J. Pennington, and the machine, the mechanism of which was necessarily somewhat primitive, was arranged to carry two small machine guns the cranks of which were to be driven by the car engine with a view to increasing the rapidity of fire. In those days, the machine gun was usually hand-cranked. At intervals since that time various designs had been brought out, the general principle being to employ a completely armoured car, the driver of which would in most cases be in considerable danger of accident, owing to the way in which the protection provided for him obscured the view of the road on either side. In the majority of cases, the vehicle was designed to carry one machine gun mounted in a turret above the roof. Thus, in a design got out by the Charron Company some time back, the machine gun was contained in a rotating turret a little way forward of the rear axle. The joint between this turret and the roof of the car involved a flange and a thick rubber ring. The turret rotated on a central vertical shaft, and on this shaft was a screw wheel. The effect of turning this wheel was to raise or lower the turret. When the machine gun had been drawn into the right position with the turret raised, the wheel was turned bringing the turret down hard against the rubber ring which held it securely, and prevented it from shaking about while the gun was being fired. [Illustration: _“The Autocar” illustration._ AN ITALIAN DESIGN FOR A MOTOR BATTERY OF QUICK-FIRING GUNS. THE SIDES SWIVEL ROUND TO FACE IN ANY DESIRED POSITION.] In another design, coming from the Creusot Works of Messrs. Schneider, provision was made for a larger machine gun, carried in a substantial turret projecting from the car roof, and mounted upon rollers running on an inwardly projecting ring on the lower fixed portion of the turret. This ring was toothed on its inner side and engaged with a gear wheel enabling the turret, and with it the gun, to be swung round into the desired position. The gun itself carried a seat, and the gear for rotating the turret was connected with pedals, so that a man sitting on the gun could rotate it and the turret by the action of his feet, keeping his hands free for the refinements of aiming and working the weapon.