372 Thirty-first Meeting of the British Association. 
ern, abundantly show what can be done with iron, and we have only to 
look at the new system of casing ships with armor plates, to be convinced 
that we can no longer build wooden vessels of war with saftey to our 
naval superiority and the best interests of the country. I give no opin- 
ion as to the details of the reconstruction of the navy—that is reserved 
although numerous experiments were made, yet none of the targets were 
on a scale sufficient to resist more than a 6-pounder shot. It was reserved 
C 
on of this new system of defence affords the prospect of invulnerable 
ships of war, and hence the desire of the government t e 
Navy on an entirely new principle of construction, in order that we may 
retain its superiority as the great bulwark of the nation. A committee 
first, the best description of material to resist projectiles; secondly, the 
best method of fastening and applying that material to the sides of ships 
and land fortifications; and, lastly, the thickness necessary to resist the 
different descriptions of ordnance. 
“Tt is asserted, probably with truth, that whatever thickness of plates — 
Sy 
great concentration of fire, before fracture will ensue. If this the 
well-constructed iron ship, covered with sound plates of the gs 
thickness, firmly attached to its sides, will, for a considerable time, rest 
resist the heaviest existing ordnance. The rifling of heavy ie Bo rie 
] ies th of increasing enor 
n to all countries the means five of 
eight the re ok 
maint of the older cast-iron ordnance. Hence follows the facility ¥ 
