WARSHIP 



6184 



WART HOG 



power to penetrate this armor, and from the 

 beginning of the construction of armored ships 

 to the present time there h be- 



n armor plate and the big gun. The big 

 gun has won in this competition because a 

 16-inch gun can throw a projectile that will 

 pierce the toughest 15-inch armor plate that 

 can be made. This condition has led to the 

 building of pre-drcadnaughts having a speed 

 that will enable them to keep out of range of 

 the heavy-armed battleships. 



The first plate used was of wrought iron. 

 Later strrl was substituted, and various meth- 

 ods for increasing the resistance of steel armor 

 plate have been employed. The two armor 

 plates now in use are those made of nickel steel 

 and those made of Harvey ized steel. The for- 

 mer consists of steel to which a small percent- 

 age of nickel has been added. The nickel 

 toughens the steel and increases its resistance. 

 Harveyized steel takes its name from the in- 

 ventor of the process of hardening it. The 

 process consists in placing the plate on the floor 

 of a furnace and covering the surface with a 

 layer of charcoal, over which a layer of sand is 

 placed. The layer of sand is covered with fire 

 brick. The temperature of the furnace is then 

 raised to near the melting point of cast iron 

 and kept at this point for several days. The 

 carbon is burned into the steel and hardens it. 

 When removed from the furnace the plate is 

 allowed to cool slowly until it reaches a cherry 

 red, when it is cooled quickly in running water. 



Recent Progress. Since the construction of 

 the first dreadnaught in 1905, progress has been 

 chiefly along the line of improving the arma- 

 ment. The heavy guns of the first dread- 

 naught were so placed that only a part of 

 them could be used in a broadside, as can be 

 seen from the diagram. The first dreadnaughts 

 of the German navy 'also followed this plan. 

 It was left for the United States to perfect a 

 plan for placing the heavy guns of ships of the 

 dreadnaught type, which has since been adopted 

 by all other nations. This plan consists in plac- 

 ing all batteries of heavy armament on the me- 

 dian line of the ship, and was first employed in 

 the Michigan in 1906. Comparison of the dia- 

 gram of the Michigan with that of the Arizona 

 shows that the difference consists only in the 

 number of guns to a turret. C.H.H. 



Related Subjects. In this connection the 

 reader may refer to the following articles in 

 these volumes : 



Constitution, The Galley 



Frigate Gunboat 



Navy ( with list) Torpedo 



Ship War of the Nations 



Submarine 



WART, a growth caused by the thickening 

 and hardening of layers of skin over a small 

 area. Warts usually occur on the fingers or 

 hands, and are the result of some form of irri- 

 tation; there may be one or several, but the 

 tendency is for several to form. Occasionally 

 small blood vessels grow up into a wart, but it 

 is usually dry and hard. People who arc 

 obliged to use the hands in doing hard and 

 dirty work are most frequently the victims of 

 these disagreeable growths. The standard form 

 of treatment consists in cutting off the wart 

 close to the skin and then burning the base 

 with an acid. Strong nitric acid applied per- 

 sistently to the wart will destroy it, but this 

 acid must be used very carefully and be ap- 

 plied only to the wart, as it destroys by burn- 

 ing or cauterizing. No matter how removed, 

 warts have a tendency to return. As cancers 

 sometimes develop from these growths, any 

 wart which is sore and difficult to remove 

 should be treated by a physician. C.B.B. 



WART HOG, a species of swine of extremely 

 ugly appearance. Its home is mainly in South 

 Africa, and it is called vlakte-vark, or "pig of 

 the plains," by the Dutch farmers. It is about 

 three feet in height, and has huge tusks and 



-oO, 

 THE WART HOG 



three wartlike protuberances on each side of 

 the face. The skin is smooth and of a whitish- 

 gray color, except upon the neck and back, 

 where there is a long, coarse mane of dark, 

 bristly hair. The wart hogs run in small family 

 parties, and go far afield for their supplies of 

 food, doing great damage to crops in cultivated 

 districts. The young and tender specimens are 

 fairly good food. A northern species, called 

 Aeliaris wart hog, is found in Abyssinia and 

 Somaliland. 



