The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-01-19

y
with the battery charge, an energy even
higher than that of The 1O0-ton muzzle-
loading gun. But it is now doubtful whether
we shall be able to stop at this point, and
the power of the new 100-ton breech-load-
ing Armstrong guns now constructed or in
process of construction for the Italian Navy
will be not only greater than that of the
proposed seventy-five or seventy-siX ton
gun, but also greater than any piece of
ordnance yet made, or being made, in
Europe.
THE LESSON OF THE EXPERIMENTS.
The spirited conduct of the italian au-
thorities, among whom Admiral Albni
stands prominent, may be unpleasant for
their neighbours, but will certainly oblige
all Europe to follow sooner or later, in the
same direction. Heavy breech-loders will
probable become common, and perhaps, it
may be as well for England to take care
that she is not behind in the movement.
The new ordnance of great caliber 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 unarm-
ored portions of ships, and the tendency in
shipbuildng is to concentrate the great
weight of armor about the parts of the
vessel which are considered vital, leaving
the rest, comparatively speaking, unprotec-
ted. The effect of one or two proiectiles
passing into the unprotected portions may
not, indeed, destroy the life of the ship, but
a considerable number of large shells
bursting inside or passing through must be
highled destructive to the lives of men, and
even to that of the vessel herself in time.
1t must be difficult, OF even impossible, to
protect any ship entirely against fire and,
besides, the explosive of great quantities of
powder between decks must render that
part of the ship untenable by man. In
spite of improved armor and all the newest
inventions, such as iron decks below the
water-line, the guns will have the advan-
tage, provided only that they be large
enough. This is the chief lesson of the late
experiments, and it is important enough to
merit deep attention.
STRENGTH OF THE PLATES.
With regard to the comparatively minor
point of the plates themselves, opinions
differ widely. 1t has BEEN clearly shown
that compound plates-that is, wrought
iron plates with hard steel face-will, if
well made, keep out all the moderately
sized proiectiles, whether of chilled iron or
steel This has been shown clearly enough
by English experiments. 1t has now been
proved that thicker plates, not so well made,
because the machinery for them is not yet
complete, will resist perforation even by the
lO0-ton gun. Schneider steel plate, which
is probably the best of it's kind ever manu-
featured, has done the same. But in both
cases there is point where the power of
the gun to smash in the plate becomes
efficacious, and this was reached sooner in
the case of the compound plates than in
that of the steel. Unfortunately for scientific
deductions, the compound plates 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 from all other support,
were still held up by the bolts. 1t is there
fore, impossible to say distinctly that steel
armor is better than compound, though
there seems probability that steel will in
time become universally adopted for the
purpose of armoring ships.
VIRTUE OF STEEL.
That metal has many virtues and some
defects. 1t would be contrary to all cxpe-
rience to suppose that the defects will not,
in process of time, yield to the progress of
science. The same gradual Improvement
which has brought English steel blades
from a very low place, compared with
those of some other places Damascus, for
instance-to that of the highest in the
world, will doubtless continue to overcome
difficulties till all signs of brittleness have
been eliminated. 1t may be, and probably