Caterpillar was named by a photographer who thought the machine had broken down.
In March 1905 Benjamin Holt took his photographer, Charlie Clements, to see a tractor he had put on tracks. Seeing no wheels, Clements took it for broken down, until it came round a crop of barley and he jumped to his feet and said, “If that don’t look like a monster caterpillar.”
Caterpillar on Brandseum