550 



NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



equipped, and they are delivering armor at a 

 rapid rate. 



The question of the best material for armor 

 has been hotly discussed. Compound (hard-steel 

 face with wrought-iron back), steel, and nickel- 

 steel are the chief competitors. The conclusions 

 of the Gun-foundry Board and investigations 

 undertaken on its own account decided the Navy 

 Department to adopt steel for the armored ves- 

 sels under construction, and all contracts were 

 made for that metal. Before deliveries had be- 

 gun, and while there yet remained time to alter 

 the provisions of the contract, the department 

 conducted what may be regarded as the most 

 important of all recent armor tests in this or any 

 other country. Three test plates, 10'5 inches 

 thick, were acquired two from Schneider & Co., 

 of Creusot, Prance, of steel and nickel-steel re- 

 spectively, the third from Cammell & Co., of Shef- 

 field, England, was of compound steel and iron. 

 As the latter firm offered their plate for sale to 

 the department without solicitation, and were 

 aware that it would be tested in competition with 

 the two that had already been contracted for with 

 Schneider & Co., their efforts to place it in com- 

 petition seem to indicate their perfect confidence 

 in it, and that it was probably equal to their best 

 production. The trial was conducted publicly, 

 and under conditions acknowledged to be per- 

 fectly fair by the agents of the armor factories 

 immediately before it was begun. The result, 

 while in a measure anticipated by our ordnance 

 authorities, exceeded their expectations, and was 

 a source of disappointment and considerable 

 alarm to those nations that had wholly, or in 

 part, committed themselves to the use of com- 

 pound armor. The all-steel plate gave the least 

 penetration, but was cracked through. The 

 compound plate was completely perforated by 

 each projectile (four 6-inch and one 8-inch), and 

 at the end of the firing was a total wreck with 

 nearly the entire hard-steel face stripped off. 

 The nickel-steel plate, while not exhibiting quite 

 so great resistance to penetration as that, of all- 

 steel, approached it very closely in that respect, 

 and showed a marked superiority in tenacity and 

 resistance to rupture. No through cracks were 

 developed, and the few surface cracks were unim- 

 portant. Neither the all-steel nor the nickel- 

 steel allowed a single projectile to get through. 

 In the opinion of the trial board the nickel-steel 

 proved itself the best, owing to its freedom from 

 serious cracks, which more than counterbalanced 

 the slightly greater penetration it permitted. 

 Subsequent trials of the same plate to ascertain 

 its behavior in cold weather showed that, while 

 it was perhaps not wholly uninfluenced by tem- 

 perature, the difference was very slight, arid cer- 

 tainly not greater than that exhibited by other 

 kinds of armor under similar conditions. 



During 1890 and 1891 several thin plates 

 treated by the Harvey process of surface harden- 

 ing by carbonization and subsequent manipula- 

 tion were tested, with results superior to any 

 ever before attained. The process was then 

 applied to thicker armor, and during October, 

 November, and December, 1891, nine plates of 

 American manufacture were tested at the new 

 naval proving ground at Indian Head. The 

 results were most satisfactory. Two of the plates 

 one of nickel-steel Harveyized and the other 



of nickel-steel untreated showed themselves 

 superior to both of the best two plate obtained 

 from Schneider in 1890. The others were all 

 good. The conclusions of the Annapolis trial of 

 the preceding year were sustained as to the 

 superiority of nickel-steel, and the Harvey pro- 

 cess, though still somewhat defective as regards 

 uniformity, was shown to add materially to the 

 resisting qualities of the plate. 



In less than five years the armor industry has 

 been created and developed to a point at which 

 we are able to produce armor equal to, and, so 

 far as any tests here or elsewhere have shown, 

 superior to, any manufactured abroad. The 

 work on the plates for the vessels building is go- 

 ing forward rapidly, and it is believed that little 

 further delay will arise from future tardiness of 

 deliveries ; and when the ships are completed, we 

 shall have the satisfaction of knowing that 

 their armor protection is superior to that of 

 equal thickness on any vessels in the world of 

 previous or contemporaneous construction. 



A most important point connected with the 

 development of armor in this country is the 

 success obtained by Carnegie, Phipps & Co. 

 with the rolling process of manufacture, by 

 which the great expense of forging under the 

 hammer is rendered no longer absolutely neces- 

 sary. This places armor manufacture within 

 the reach of several firms heretofore deterred 

 from attempting it on account of the great ex- 

 pense of establishing a suitable plant. 



Projectiles. During the. past few years the 

 manufacture of projectiles specially adapted to 

 piercing armor has been vastly improved. The 

 long used and highly esteemed chilled cast-iron 

 Palliser shot is powerless against modern armor, 

 breaking up like so much glass on its hard face, 

 or crushing to fragments in a vain attempt to 

 penetrate the more homogeneous varieties. 

 Chrome steel and other varieties of that metal 

 under special treatment have been tried, with the 

 resulting production of a projectile that will 

 pass through the toughest armor almost without 

 a scratch, and often without deformation suffi- 

 cient to prevent its being used again. The lead- 

 ing processes are probably the Holtzer and the 

 Firminy, though several others approach them 

 closely in results. No attempt was made to pro- 

 duce such projectiles in the United States until 

 1890, when, through the efforts of the Navy 

 Department, the Carpenter Steel Company of 

 Reading, Pa., was induced to purchase the 

 patents and secret processes of the Firminy 

 type, which were offered at much more reason- 

 able rates than those of its chief competitor. 

 During the present year the Carpenter Company 

 has begun deliveries under contract, and their 

 productions have proved satisfactory, the more 

 so as their later shells show a distinct improve- 

 ment, due, it is said, to a partial abandonment of 

 the Firminy formula in favor of one of their 

 own discovery. Several other methods of manu- 

 facture of domestic origin have been developed 

 and give promise of good results, though not 

 yet considered satisfactory. 



Common shell (i. e., shell not intended for use 

 against armor) are still largely made of cast iron, 

 especially for the larger calibers ; but as forged- 

 steel shells have many advantages, notably their 

 greater capacity for bursting charges, owing to 



