Arizona silver belt., 1890-09-13
New American ships O, War.

1 Under the recent act of Congress the plans for the three new battle ships are being rapidly developed and pre- pared
 The act provided that the three yes sels should each have ahout $500 tons | displacement, with the same limit of cost, which is $4,O00, 900 each, ex- elusive of armament and speed premi- ums.
 The hull is to be of steel unsheaihed, with bracket framing, and double bot tom from armor shelf to armor shelf | fore and aft
 The armor at the water line is n | belt of steel seven feet in breadth and 1 eighteen inches thick, with en added one and half inches behind the wood backing. The transverse armor at the ends of the belt will be fourteen inches thick, while from the belt to the main deck there is five ard q half inch umor on the side, backed by a broad bunker of coal. curved three inch armored deck extends fore and aft from the ends of the water line belt over the engines and boilers, its edges meeting the ships sides below the water line The battery of each vessel will mark q great advance over anything yet attempted in our navy, consisting of four l3 inch, fcur inch, and four 6 inch breech-loading rifles. The l3 inch guns will be in barbette turrets. IT inches thick, and with the amor in- ciined so Hs to offer resistance of 10 inches to horizontal fire The second ary batteries will include twenty-eight guns, consisting of twenty pounier and six ] pounder rapid-fre guns and two Gatiings. Twelve torpedoes will be carried.
 The speed will be at least fifteen knots, maintained for four consecutive hours, and produced by twiH-scre's triple-expansion engines of 1000 indi- cated horse power nnder natural draught and 9, 600 under forced draught. At least 100 tons of coal will be carried { The bids for these vessels may be on plans provided by the Navy Depart
 nent or on those submitted by the bidder.
 Not less interesting in its way is fae protected cruiser of 1900 tons. in which speed IS the chief object aimed at. Although the act of Congress calls for the very high rate of twenty-one knots, Chief Engineer Melville has been planning to secure twenty-two knots, although only twenty-one will be guar anteed by the contractor, The new device of three screws, each connected with separate triple-expansion engine, IS in some of the latest French and Italian ships, is relied upon to aid ia producing the expected speed. The chief protection for this vessel, in ad- dition to its great supply of coal, which IS 750 tons, arranged ill bunkers so as 10 shield the machinery, will be an  armored deck of about four inches ma&- ilnum thickness. The armament of this cruiser is Inferior 10 that of some smaller but iess swift vessels, the main battery consisting only of four inch rided breeeh loaders and eight l inch rapid-fire guns.
 Taking together the three bnttle ships, this very fast protected cruiser, the fast S,l00 ton agmored cruiser, sshose construction was awarded to Cfamp < Sons two months ago, and the $500 tons unarmored cruiser, whose construction wss at the same time awarded to the Union Iron Works, the work of the present summer will be represented by half adozen of the finest vessels of their class in the world, whose completion may be looked for in 1893, or in 1894 at the furthest. = Scientific American