Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-15
[From the London Standard.

1 ProjectiIes Le Made That Will Pierce 1 It:
 l [From the London Standard,l
 The most interesting and instructive series 1 of experiments with armor- plates which have 1 taken place for many years have just been 1 concluded at Spezia. The introduction of ] steel faced and solid steel plates with hard faces has considerably altered the conditions ] of the attack and defense of ships. Whereas 1 formerly rules were drawn up which were 1 applicable to all cases and for ordinary l shaped shot certain amount of energy per l inch of circumference could be laid down l with confidence sufficient to carry them l through given thickness of armor, it has I now become clear that plates can be manu- factured which are practically safe from dan 1 ger of porforation. It is, however, impossi- | ble, so far as is yet known, to build any ship which can resist the ram of an antagonist,
 and there can be no impossibility in construct 1 ing ordnance which will have the effect of l Q ram small scale. If the newest armor 1 of the day cannot be pierced, it can, at least, be driven in by some force or other. The l only question is to find that force within practical limits. The tendency has lately been to avoid the difficulties inherent in system of carrying very heavy naval guns by decreasing the calibre and increasing the ve- 1 locity of the projectile. By this means ad- mirable results obtained with the old soft wrought iron plates, because shot of small diameter and high velocity will pierce,
 
 | material hard enough to break or turn the point of an arrow Robin Hood himself could not succeed. So it is with projectiles from ordnance.
 It now seems that plates can be made hard enough to resist perforation by any projec- lilo yet made. The chilled iron of Tregarini, the still stronger steel of Whitworth, flying with velocity of some l 1,540 feet second, have equally failed to pierce the unyielding metal, whether French or English, though the blow delivered by the Armstrong 1OO-ton gun has actually been sufficient to drive in the very strong backing of the plates. It is possible that projectile may hereafter be made at once hard enough and tough enough to do the required work, but at present there ! are no signs of it's advent. In the meantime, the plate has beaten the projectile, but the side of the ship has not beaten the gun The question Is, what gun-or, rather, what character of gun? The question is impor- tant, for all the latest progress in artillery has been in the direction of Tightening the piece. If the experiments just past are not wrongly interpreted we shall have to modify our present ideas and construct ordnance of such dimensions that the shot shall batter like rams rather than pierce like arrows Unless new discoveries bring with them new oplkions, an impetus which has now been given will carry every nation in the direction ot extremely large and heavy guns, and the decision made by almost every government to confine its exertions within certain limits of size will have to be reconsidered It is not little interesting to know that Italy. which has steadily kept at the head of Eu-
 rope in the size of her naval guns, should
 now be the first to demonstrate the wisdom
 ot the course her naval artillersts have pur-
 sued. The men who have consistently
 worked out the idea find themselves justified
 by events, and certainly deserve the approba-
 ton of their countrymen.
 It cannot be said that the events of the
 tho
 surprise. When, in the early days of steel armor, it was found that the steel plate, though not easily penetrated, cracked and
 broke up all over it's surface, an attempt was made to meet the difficulty by using instead of one large plato @ number of small ones thus breaking the continuity of the metal and preventing the spreading of the damage.
 The idea was successful. and it's effect was excellent against small guns. But the 100. ton gun simply drove the small plates into the side of the ship, and the destruction was even worse than before The discovery made within the last few days has been that even large plates, strong enough to resist perforatlon, may yield to the force of a heavy blow as to drive in the side of the yes sel, though they themselves only show a slight indentation and such cracks as leave the ar-
 nor still strong enough to resist penetration.
 Every great naval power has designed the
 kind of gun adapted for this purpose Eng land and Italy alone have made or adopted them, and but for these experiments the di-
 rection Of progress mi ght have been turned in
 another direction It has been stated in the
 House of Commons, and is, therefore, no SC. cret, that England is building ships which
 will be armed with guns of ?J tons or there-. about, capable of piercing nearly thirty inch- es of wrought iron. Such ordnance would throw a very heavy projectile, which would
 have, with the battery charge, an energy
 even higher than that of the hundred ton
 muzzle loading gun. But it is now doubted
 whether we shall be able to stop at this point
 and the power of the new 1OO-ton breech- loading Armstrong guns now constructed or in process of construction for the Italian
 navy will be not only greater than that of the
 proposed 75 or 76 ton gun, but also greater
 than any piece of ordnance yet made, or be-
 ing made, in Europe.
 The spirited conduct of the Italian author
 ities, among whom Admiral Albini stands prominent, may be unpleasant for their
 nelghbors, but will certainly obIige all Flu rope to follow, sooner or later, in the same direction. Heavy breech.loaders will proba- ply become common, and, perhaps, it may be as well for England to take care that she is not behindhand in the movement The new ordnance of great calibre will not only be valuable-necessary, indeed-for breaking in armor; they will also be able to throw huge shells containing enormous bursting charges of powder into the unarmored DOT tlons of ships, and the tendency in ship building is to concentrate the great weight of armor about the parts of the vessel which are considered vital, leaving the rest, com. paratlvely speaking, unprotected. The ef- feet of one or two projectiles passing into the unprotected portions may not indeed destroy the life of the ship, but considera- blo number of large shells bursting inside or passing through must be highly destructive to the lives of men, and even to that of the vessel herself in tinie. It must be difficult, or even impossible to protect any ship en- tlrely against fire; and, besides, the explo- sion of great quantities of powder between decks must render that part of the ship un- tenable by men. In spite of improved ar nor and all the newest inventions, such as iron decks below the water. line, the guns will have the advantage provided only that they be large enough This is the chief les son of the late experiments, and it is impor- tant enough to merit deep attention.
 With regard to the comparatively minor point of the plates themselves, opinions diff | fer widely. It has been clearly shown that | compound plates-tbat is, wrought iron , plates with hard steel face-wiIl, if we'll made keep out all the moderately sized pro- jectiles, whether of chilled iron or steel i This has been shown clearly enough by 1 English experiments It has now been proved that thicker plates not so we'll made, because the machinery for them is not yet complete, will resist perforation even by the ! 100 ton gun. The Schneider steel plate which is probably the best of it's kind ever uOue in6 Saln6. put III both cases there is point where the power of the gun to smash Tn the plate becomes ef- hoaeious, and this was reached sooner in the . case of the compound plates than in that of . the steel Unfortunately for scientific de- ductions, the compound plate had not the , same support from bolts as that of the steel, and the effect of this was seen clearly the . other day, when the steel plate was broken . into several pieces, some of which. separated i from all other support, were still held up by i the bolts. It is, therefore, impossible to say distinctly that steel armor is better than ! compound, though there seems a possibility | that steel will in time become universally , adopted for the purpose of armoring ships. {! That metal has many virtues and some de- fects. It would be contrary to all experience to suppose that the defects will not, in pro cess of time, yield to the progress of science. The same gradual improvement which has brought English steel blades from very low place. compared with those of some other places-Damascus, for instance-to that of the highest in the world will doubtless con- tinue to overcome difficulties till all signs of brittleness have been eliminated. It may be, and probably is, quite true that at present