If someone has checked on Firepower of R.P. Hunnicutt, they'll notice at the very second page past the introduction of Heavy Tanks to the US, right next of the first Tank Crew of the Mark VIII "Liberty" tank, they'll notice this interesting design it's quite obscure even on the internet itself:

You will try and Google anything about "Automatic Machine Company", "Bridgeport, Connecticut" or even the date it says, 14 July 1915, and you'll only get some strange classic pictures of the Machine Co. posters of sewing machines, hydraulic presses and even a few modern factories, but NOTHING about the tank of the picture.

You might even think it was an irrelevant paper tank, specially on such a wild era where the combustion engine was still far from being standarized, so many people came with crazy ideas. However not any fictional crazy tank would go as far as appearing as the very first United States Tank Corps insignia:

source

On 29 December 1917, paragraph 36 change 1 to War Department Special Regulations No. 42, established the first Tank Service collar insignia (picture) which was unpopular with the service; so, on 7 May 1918, change 2 to the Service Regulation announced a new design that was popular with the troops. (A side Mark VIII instead of this picture)

source

How exactly a paper tank appeared as the official US Tank Corps?

We have to remember that for World War I, the concept of a tank was very new, even still a secret on some places. Even H. G. Wells wrote The Land Ironclads with a bit of imagination and what technologies he saw trending, it was not enough to make the knowledge of an armored vehicle be heard of, let alone needed. You still would have a hard time understanding the need of an armored landship, until you start to get frustrated in your trench for days, weeks and even months without any noticeable push or retreat. The generals started to realize how bad the attrition was, and they slowly started to experiment with anything that appeared on their door.

But there was one problem: The US did not had a proper tank on their own. At the very best they got some FT-17 the same General Patton commanded one, but no properly american tank. Then again, the new mysterious British unit was not revealed until the morning of 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, where more people started to take notice of it... and still, pictures were still too rare to publish it worldwide. That gave room for many artists and even companies to try and reimagine the tank for themselves, either for renown, or to get a military contract, or both. Some started from scratch while others already had old blueprints to try and be taken further than just a concept... like the Automatic Machine Company.

After the use of tanks by Great Britain in September 1916, plans of the Land Cruiser appeared in two journals: "Scientific American" of October 7, and "Popular Mechanics" of November. While Popular Mechanics gave a more in-depth explanation of the concept tank and the blueprints, Scientific American took the cake on including an artist' speculative impression of the tank being deployed on the Somme.

A refreshing, unique view never seen before of this tank, caused a bit more of confusion if it was real or fiction

While the US Army began investigating what they could take for a tank and make it their own, it wasn't until July 1918 they finally got the first shipment of Mark VIII's Britain sent to them. Until then, people could only think on the Land Cruiser picture above. Easier to see, easier to understand, easier to recognize, but a bit offensive for the actual tank men that gave their lives on the front to be related to something made of fiction. Something similar happened very recently with the new United States Space Force.

So... what exactly happened to the Land Cruiser then?

To put it in short... it was never meant to exist. It was just the Automatic Machine Co. building some hype to sell engines. They gave the Land Cruiser popularity and tried to sell each part by separate (tracks, radiators, engine, etc), but not the tank as a whole. The very words of Norman Leeds, Treasurer and General Manager of Automatic Machine Co were:

In the sketch as carried over the seas by Mr. McNab, Mr. Leeds had no thought of presenting a finished product. The question of proper armament and its disposition was one to be settled by men expert in modern ordnance, not by an American engine builder. What the American wanted was to sell engines, and at one time in the negotiations, according to Mr. McNab's statement, and more particularly found in correspondence and cablegrams which are in the file containing the full record of the negotiations, the prospects for an engine contract were bright.

You can easily read a bit more how they tried to achieve that here in the source, if you don't mind a longer reading

That's it for today, hope this can help bring this rare tank more on the lights of the internet.