506 Mr. John Scott Russell [May 16, 



He had called the introduction of iron-armour ships, Stevens's and 

 the Emperor's ; but something he laid claim to for ourselves. Stevens 

 used thin flat plates one over the other ; but Mr. Lloyd, of the Admi- 

 ralty, being consulted at that time, did express his opinion that solid 

 4^-inch plates would be more effectual than the six inches of thickness 

 in a congeries of plates. Mr. Lloyd has some of the merit as well as 

 the Emperor for the adoption of this kind of armour. The speaker 

 exhibited a model of the first iron batteries. The form, he said, was 

 not very handsome ; in short, they were not only not good sea-boats, 

 but in a sea good for nothing. They did, however, in smooth water, 

 some good work ; at least three of the French Emperor's did. We 

 never got so far. They went to the Black Sea — to Kinburn ; and 

 when they came back they were covered with the marks of shot, but 

 not one of them was seriously damaged. This proved the value of 

 these coated vessels, and so convinced the Emperor, that he wisely de- 

 termined the fleet of France in future should be an iron fleet. We all 

 know with what decision, what success, what economy he has carried 

 that idea out. " I have here," said the speaker, " the means of show- 

 ing you what this armour is. Now to tell the secret of the efficacy 

 of an armour plate. First, as a matter of fact, it stops the shot, as an 

 anvil stops a hammer, and stops it outside the ship ; and so, therefore, 

 the armour acts practically as an anvil. When these plates were made 

 they were made to resist 8-pounders, and 4^ inches thickness was ample ; 

 but now they were firing shot very much larger. When a round ball, 

 or a round shell, strikes the iron plate, the first thing done is, that it stops 

 the hit of the ball that first touches the armour ; next, the bits round 

 it rush on until they too get stopped by the armour ; and so this little (!) 

 ball makes a dent for itself; the remainder of the crushed ball seems, 

 as Mr. Faraday says, to be ' squermed ' out of shape. I stole the 

 word, it is so capitally expressive. The shape is not like the original 

 ball, — it is an entirely new form altogether, I call it ' Faraday's 

 squerm.' But we have not the full weight of mettle here. We have 

 only a part of the shot left, the remainder is dispersed in numerous 

 fragments. This is all that remains — a beautiful smooth, polished 

 cone ; the rest has gone everywhere. What meanwhile has happened 

 to the armour? The plate first gets a dent ; if Sir William Armstrong 

 hits it twice in the same place the dent gets deeper ; and if he hits it 

 again in the same hollow, as he so maliciously does, the dent parts 

 company with the plate and starts on a voyage of exploration for itself. 

 But if this ball (150-pounder) were used, I am sure that at the first 

 hit it would take a piece of its own size away with it. Now, if this 

 occurs with a solid shot, what would happen with a hollow ball made 

 to explode, and fired at the ship ? Fortunately we know what would 

 happen. We have seen it fired, and it not only got smashed to pieces, 

 but \t forgot to explode; and the only excuse that can be made for this 

 is that it had not time to do so. I do not know if you know what takes 

 place inside of a gun ; but artillerists know it takes some 4 or 5-lOOOths 

 of a second for the explosion to go from one end of the charge to the 



