The morning call., 1892-10-23
A REMARKABLE TARGET.
Unequaled Quality of the Armor for
American Warships.

American Warships.
New York Sun.
The Illustration presented herewith will
show at glance the resisting qualities Of
the latest armor plates tested for our naval
rsevice. The general results of the recent
trials at Indian Head and Bethlehem were
announced in the Sun at the time The
London Engineer, technical journal of
high authority, says, in commenting on
these trials, that sit feels a difficulty in
using the emphasis the plate deserves"
and that Eve have had to report such re-
peated remarkable steps in the increase of
resisting power that what is really only
justice sounds like eXtravagant commenda
tiOn" This authority is inclined to give the
whole credit of the unprecedented and as
tonishiDg resistance TO perforati0n shown
by the latest American armor to the Harvey
process of super-earDOniZiHg the surface.
1t will not admit that the addition Of nickel
to the steel helped It's resisting powers.
However that may be, the Harvey process
is distinctly American. The British are
trying hardening process OF their own,
that of Captain Tresidder, and this fact
makes still more noticeable the frank ac-
acknowledgement that the results attained in
the trials carried on by Commodore F0lger
''are pioneering US in the important In esti-
cation of the possibilities OF keeping out the
best projectiles by armor with face capable
of breaking them up. We only hope that
the English results may be shown to be
capable of rivaling them
That this praise Is well deserved will be
admitted on recalling that in the two trials
each target consisted OF Dickel-steel
Harveyed plate of the standard dimensions,
s feet high by feet wide and 10h inches
thick, with a suitable wood backing Each
received five rounds from an S-inch high
power navy breech-loading rife OF 81
caliber. All the projectiles were 6-inch
Hotter armor-piercing forged-steei ehells,
and each was propelled with striking
velocity of 1700 feet per second. The aggre-
gate energy OF the FIVE shots striking each
plate was % 040 foot tons. These figures will
show the tremendous severity of the tests,
as compared with those customary on Eu-
ropean proving-grounds, while they eclipse
those Of English trials wherever the plate
has come off victorious. In the test Of the
Brown compound plate, hardened by the
Tresidder process. held at Portsmouth last
year, only 6-ineb projectiles were used. and
TWO out of the five were not steel.
The plats tried a. lndian Head broke
three of the FIVE Holtzer 8-inch shells and,
while the other two succeeded in carrying
their points to the rear surface of the plate,
neither of them got into the wood backing.
| There was but one crack in the plate and
| that was in the right-hand upper corner and
did not destroy its effectiveness as a prOtec-
| ton. Remarkable as was this result, IL was
| surpassed week later by similar plate
| tested at South Bethlehem. The trial was
| made there because this plate had unfOrtu-
| nately received in the manufacture a few
| surface cracks and IL was apprehended at
| the Ordnance Bureau that they might lead
| to disaster at the firing tests. AS matter
| of fact they had no disadvantageous effect
| whatever, and all five projeetiles, although
| of Holtzer's latest make. were smashed up,
with only few inches of penetration. The
plate in this second trial showed no crack
| ing whatever from the impact of the pro-
| jectiles. The result which must have sur
prised British ordnance circles is the
disaster to the Hotter projectiles, which
are of the highest excellence and of which,
nevertheless, eight out of ten were de-
stroyed.
The only difference between these two
plates was that the one tried at Indian
Head was HarveyiZed at its final thickness
of 1917 inches, while the one tried at Beth
lehem had the process applied to it at the
intermediate thickness of II inches, and
was then forged down to 10b, spreading
out the Harveyized portion, and thus les
sening its depth.
There are some additional points Of inter-
est relating to these trials. For 10h.ineh