The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-20
ARMOR PLATES SMASHED.
Ripped in Twain as Though The,
Were Wooden.

Washington, May 19-With roar and
shock that made the earth trenble, the
navy pet, the 12-inch rifle, hurled its S50-fb
pIojectile against the 1S-inch nickle steel
Harveyized plate the most powerful ever
tried, at the proving ground today, and
tore the SS-tons of steel into great frag-
ments- The result was a complete sur
prise for all OF the experts and q sad blow
to the Bethlehem steel company, for I'M
plate they will lose 100000 represented by
the group of armor plate, which the sam
pie e., tried today was the test piece.
The plates submitted to test were No.
5-l07 "B," representing 613 tons of side
armor intended fr the battle-ship Indiana
and made by the Bethlehem Steel COM
pany; It weighed SS4 tons and cost about
$1,000. In shape it was an irregular OBJ
long, 16 feet long by ~ feet high, Is
inches thick above, with the, lower edge
~ inches, bevelled off to a miniature
thickness of s inches. 1t was nickel steel,
forged by hydrauitc pressure and Harvey
lied.
a 18-inch rife, the largest in naval use,
was to be fired against this but the pIate
was found to be too narrow to warrant
TINS severe test, so the 12-inch gun, which
will hereafter be the maximum ordnance
construction. was levelled at the plate,
distant about 400 feet. The projectile a
Carpenter armor piercer, weighing $50
poRnds, and driven by 269A pounds of
DupontS brown prismatic powder flew
l.4hl
feet per second, and struck the plate
about foot to the right of the center
when the smoke cleared away there was
an exclamation Of surprise from the spec
Tators.
About thirty feet in front of the target
lay the shot, apparently little changed
Whlle IN thep late was q gaping hole and
worse than that, three great cracks
yawning open eight inches running clear
across from top to bottom and from the
shot hole to the left edge
An examination showed that the shot
mad forced its point through the plate to
the banking and had then rebounded af-
Ger cracking the plate. Had the plate
been fastened on the Indiana side instead
of against thirty-siX inches of OAK
backed against the hillside, the chances
are the battleship would have had a
frghful wound further experiment
seemed to be needless, but the contract
consideration requiring it, another shot
WIS hTeq az the fragrant of plate in the
right, about seven feet broad that re-
NAMED uninjured. This time the gunner
put 4SS 3-15 pounds of powder in the gun
and the proJectile. another Pinch Car
penter, was given force and sent at the
maximum Velocity-I.926 feet a second
Again the plate was rent. splitting wide
ly across but the shot did not escape
for while II forced its point through the
plate and about eight inches into the
oak backing, it was twisted in several
pieces, the point remaining in the hole
and the remainder lying in fragments
outside the plate.
The Bethlehem company will have an
other opportunity to submit another 49,
inch plate TO test before the entire group
of twenty plates for the Indiana is finally
judged and as they will doubtless take
another chance to save the $500. 900. which
the plates cost, the next trial may final
iy set at rest that now exists
as to the cause of the failure today