The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-02 00:00:00

The Chalmers Target.

emstvsiaujioat Isatbfgoeer
capabilities
Evere
ledog nl
oestroi tynhteeaheit
isthhpaevlaindnagys of the Spanish Armada, the vital
importance of our supremacy at sea has been acknowledged,
without a dissentient voice, as the beet means for keeping
world. In accordance with tl7scifer,aol:l4
nuenvfaeirlirnugnlythe statesmenabroad,
have and
taken good care that the fleets of England should
liilbfileATlSlP,saTtfeti
too frequently dangerhappened
surpass ours in their ees
this watchfulness, however,pewer
oodf
thhcain..gthoeryerniatched, though it but
succeeded, during the Crimean
towards modifying that great:
prayed us oh:fogwatlu;alarlti
otfh
their
Fe allowedi:e n.
erhm aninfao7raetli.gnlvshi ph
authoritiessatlol
their design, and the
in i
fundamentale st,a:bni
I:
basis
sht
the
of our
beautyofiurrst secu-
rity step
t
and power, by the introductiont of armour plated float-
ingto o
ur superiority. batteries
hy
T h The Success
B,,ci i,'
of these armoured vessels
sea, they at once de • neutralisingagaiuseuttriht:rnereneians of destruction at
way, that the originator was
scess that attended the first trial
5:
forte nvaithoe:gebin to
t.
comparison of navies and being
frigates, which scheme
t: of La Gloire may well lay claim
Improved and extended to large
tb ou everyrt
ha carried out in so practical a
Powers. Defensive as
could no longer be calculatedwaelt yebraadibnortnhee
to quantity, in the shape the relative position of maritime
nthewe
sized smooth bores, but ° monster ships and moderate
rifled cannon. It afterfollowed that of iron clads and heavy
national point of view, we had that the arm of which, in a
was slipping fast out of our the most peremptory need,
fate of battles—for we were
hands, not through the adverse
—but through the e in
the very midst of peace
and the resolution of simple, noiseless agency of ingenuity,
the immediate practical application Promptly pushing forward
of a plan which had
proved so thoroughly useful
and feasible. Fortunately,
however, we are living in
times when concealment and
secresy are extremely difficult.
The success of the first iron
clad, and the extent to which •
becamesimilar frigates were ordered
in the French navy, seen
must admit, the danger was known ; and then, we
energetically dealt with, no
time being lost in adopting the
new principle of armour-
plating, and every possible despatch made to create an iron
fleet, in unison with the traditional
Wee policy of Great Britain.
It is true that this exempla
Powers promptly followed else-
where; in fact, most navalare at present engaged
in the reconstruction of their fleets
system to the utmost of their abilities on
the
new
yet, with the im-
mense resources our Government can 8 ;
command, if wisely
used, there can be no reason to fear that we shall ever suo-
cumb in this extraordinary race, or come out of it in a posi-
tion inferior to the one we have been wont 0 h
At the time that this new invention was adopted,eld.
was known about the best conditions fot ensarin little
with regard to the object it principally
had in vice,g sUevciers s
impenetrability, It was believed that a plain slab " "
of iron,
41. inches thick, well backed tip by
layers of timber, ,
consti-
tuted a sufficiently powerful artaonr to re •
suit cannon-shot
of the largest calibre, moving with the highest velocities.
This belief was not the result of a long aeries
of experiments
undertaken for the etre% purpose of determining what
artillery could do against smart and vice versa, whatour ar-
mour was needed to set eatery at defiance ; but it
mainly from the impression that the thickness adoptedsprang
Prance for the plating of their type ship was
amplyin
ugfuaars :tto:ffrdetnhqseni
viiirtueed
been fade
havehe nde
suffi-
cient, beeatise the targets tried at Vincennes i prove
When the iron Was of good texture and elevenave
centimetres thick (equal to about four and one-third
inches), though they lied tic iron frame-work to
port the backing. Considering that the French sup-
port
was essentially
5 owinhea
what
effort
dispositionsmi gh t t
unscientific, certainly, ,itith, an sue
contingencies,twowfuartudsreascertsiascertaining
)y
positioneay,
resistance
could be increased without adding weight • )however, if we
bear in mind that the circumstance admitted of no d 1
when they ordetcd a hundred 100-pounders before having
as
and that our authorities were nearly in the same
had even one tried, we naa7 be satisfied with the
armour-
plating adopted for the Warrior, because in a , .
relative point
of view its primitive style was superior to the equally pri-
mitive plan then carried out in the French navy. But it
soon became apparent that naval artillery was on the eve
of some radical alteration in its condition of penetration and
momentum, by the adoption of larger calibres, heavier
charges, and more suitable metal; and from that moment
every one could see tbat the question of armour-plating had
entered on an entirely new phase. 11
—nough had been
known of it to appreciate the value of such protection, and
save it from being abandoned as useless, if it could but be
endowed with resistance in an absolute sense—if we may so
express ourselves, in view of the immense difference between
old and new gunnery—always within moderate limits of
thickness and of weight. A problem of this nature could
not fail, as a general rule, to absorb the attention of engi-
neers, and promote emulation amongst them; but in the
present case it has the exceptional qualification of exciting
an intense feeling of interest in the public at large, of hold-
ing out unusual promises, and lastly cf opening a great field
to ambition. Never perhaps have the registers of the
Patent Office been called upon to record a greater number
of inventions in so short a space of time on one particular
object. A single hope had sufficed to instantly turn the
minds of many hundreds of men towards a career which
begins by exacting heavy payments for the grant of a natural
sight, at present stigmatised as a monopoly; which opens
the way to ruinous lawsuits, canoed by the grant being ,