Look what they were making at home !! http://www.daimler.co.uk/daimlermodels/Daimler_at_war_html/lorry.htm Annie
Very nice, Annie. Thank you. Some iconic trucks came out of WWI most notably the RAF type and Mack AC. I'm afraid I'm not terribly well-versed with trucks of the teens! Now, the 40s, 50s and 60s...
Here's some that may catch your fancy Andy !! http://www3.hants.gov.uk/museum/thornycroft/lorries/our-lorries.htm
Oh alright then ( though I had it on good authority it was WW1 ...... ) ...... here's a German one !! http://ourpasthistory.com/Gallery/WW1/30_G Annie
And that looks decidedly like a horse drawn one of the 1890s! And yes, the hose laying one is part of a "Home Front" issue from late 1930s early 1940s
Just shows had hard up the Jerries were... Here's a British one of 1914... http://www.dennisfire.co.uk/P14.htm
A neglected field of study... Note in Kyts post above the "Jeffrey Quad with four wheel drive and twin axle steering" - not a new idea then! And on the Daimler website above, the photo of the Daimler BE12 aeroplane "which became famous for shooting down zeppelins". In fact, it was a dreadful aircraft and had a part share in shooting down one Zeppelin, two at most!
Seems funny to think that this was the era of the solid - tire vehicle !! ... how far we've come !! The Great War of 1914/18 was the first war to utilise motor lorries in any number, following the use of a few steamers in the Boer War and provided the surplus vehicles and skills that were to provide the backbone of the modern road transport industry. http://www.historicroadways.co.uk/solid-tyre-page.htm
Technology changed radically during the decade before WW1, and with the exception of the Dreadnought battleships it was not driven by the prospect of war. Aviation is the most obvious example; going from the Wright brothers 800 foot (max) hops in 1903 to being able to bomb Friedrichshafen from bases in the Vosges in 1914. As for motor vehicles: in 1905, all buses in London were horsedrawn. By 1911, none of them were.