' PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 505 



or clay are not the best materials for the backing for plate armor ; and 

 that we are not advocating the advantages of our invention with mere con- 

 clusions drawn from theory alone. 



I am in favor of practical tests ; but the best way to test plate armor is 

 to put it on the sides or casemates of a vessel, and then go into action on 

 her, yourself, and see and know what effect the enemy's shots have on it. 



If we can make plate armor which will resist the enemy's shots, without 

 overloading our vessels with iron, that is all that is required. The enemy's 

 shots have been resisted by the compound armor, with less weight than has 

 been done with any other plan. 



I am not aware that Congress enacted any law compelling our Navy 

 Department to build vessels entirely of iron ; or to adopt any one man's 

 plan, to the exclusion of others ; or that all targets must be set against 

 banks of clay, at a distance of 50 to 75 feet, and be fired at with 30 lbs. of 

 powder and solid shot weighing from 165 to 175 lbs. It is to the inventors 

 of the country at large that we must look for good practical plans and 

 models for vessels of war ; and fair experimental tests must be our guide 

 in constructing vessels of war. 



I was looking over some books the other day, in your library, and to my 

 ntter amazement, I found in volume 2d, pages 230 and 231, in a work enti- 

 tled " Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts in the 

 State of New York," published at Albany, in the year 180T, an illustration 

 and description of a vessel with a revolving turret. The mode of operating 

 or revolving the turret is fully explained ; about the only difference between 

 that plan and our present Monitors turrets is that it is proposed to revolve 

 the monitor turrets with steam, whereas the inventor of the revolving tor- 

 ret, Mr. Abraham Bloodgood, of Albany, in 1807, proposed to revolve it by 

 "band or other means." * 



I have not come liere to discuss the subject of iron-clads, with the view 

 of objecting to the plans of certain inventors. It has been known for ages 

 that a mass of wrought iron of immense thickness could resist a cannon ball. 



I have endeavored to discuss and explain to you the advantages of the 

 plan proposed and tested by Commodore Porter and myself; and to explain 

 where and how we can improve on the plan for iron-clads now used in the 

 United States. I hope I have not given offence by explaining our plans or 

 by alluding to the defects in the plans of others, in the several meetings of 

 this association which I have attended. My time and services, are now as 

 they have been since tlie commencement of this rebellion, at my country's 

 disposal. All I ask, of some of the officials at Washington, is to treat me 

 as a loyal American citizen should be treated, who is trying to serve his 

 country to the best of his ability. I can truly say, I have never tried to 

 diddle the United States Government out of " greenbacks." I have neither 

 asked for nor received anything, except my daily wages for work done ; 

 and these have been no more than I was accustomed to receive for my ser- 

 vices seven or eight years ago. 



The discussion of the use of an elastic substance, as a backing for plate 



*The invention of Mr. Bloodgood was a floating circular battery to be anchored at its cen- 

 tre ; and not a sailing vessel with a reyolving battery upon it. 



