The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-12-17
BRITTLE ARMOR PLATE
Startling Revelations Made at
Newport News.
PLATES DO NOT STAND THE TEST.

: New York. Dec. IA special to The
Herald from Newport News. Va, says:
] Net results Of the experiments OF the
board which is investigating battle
ships steel may be summed briefly as
equivalent 10 the condemnation Of
nearly the whole amount now stacked
up in the Newport News Shipbuilding
company's yard. Six out OF twelve
test pieces which should have been
folded back on the vessels without
breaking. either broke short OF as read
lily as cast iron or torn apart with less
brittleness. but none the less certain
evidence OF falling 10 meet the contract
requirements.
| Such wholesale failure has caused the
board TO go extensively into testing
other plates and eighty-four test pieces
have been marked out OF plates rang
ing between those weighing ten pounds
and those weighing twenty-five POUNDS
TO the square foot. All Tuesday was
spent in cutting out those test pieces
and on Wednesday the bending and
quenching tests will continue.
Startling Discoveries.
So startling have been the discover
les that they go beyond the Kearsarge |
and Kentucky steel. 1t is said that al |
though the contract requirements for |
the Illinois, the battleship latest award |
ed to the Newport News company. |
were not in some respects quite as
rigid as those in the contracts for the
Kearsarge and the Kentucky, there is
no certainty that the steel already sent
here for the Illinois will come up TO the
specifications. The present board, be-
ing on the spot, might also be ordered
20 investigate the Illinois steel also. in
which case no further work would be
done on that vessel until there was a
certainty that she would be constructs
ed Of satisfactory material
One Of the requirements of the con-
tracts for structural steel for battle
ships is that the metal shall be submit
ted to what is known as the quenching
test. Each specimen, after having been
heated to cherry red. is plunged into
water having the temperature of So
Fahrenheit. Then the strip must be
capable Of bending $50 degrees-that
u.s. doubling back on itself until the
space between the two parts is no
greater than the thickness Of the plate. {
Marked for Identification. (
Chief Engineer Smith and a naval 6
conducted the test. Twelve
strips Of steel were heated The plates
rom which they were taken were |
chosen in the same way as those that
we're broken on last Thursday. part
)eing from bottom and part from
'racket plates. The strips were num-
'ered from to IS, inclusive, for iden-
ihcation. After they had been plunged
nthe water and thoroughly cooled they
we're taken 20 powerful hydraulic b
Dending machine. :
The bending machine consisted of
leavy steel mass V shaped along its II
over edge, suspended over a similar [
y shaped trough i'm the base Of the Z
machine. Large hydraulic cylinders, L
ne at each end, having a COMPRISING
over Of nearly 100 tons each, moved p
he bending beam up or down as de-
idered. The twelve strips Of metal
hat had been passed through the
uenching process were laid across the
shaped trough, and the men at the T
ydraulic levers received word to bring v
ne bending beam down. Hardly had v
ne ponderous mass touched the spec v
men pieces ere the two numbered Is
nd 10 snapped with a sharp ringing
eport without having bent at all. AS
ne beam sank lower two other clear o
ticks were heard. q,
Barely Hung Together. n
The beam when lifted showed two
rips separated, the fragments having
Drung up and away from the grove. 81
Vo pieces numbered 10 and IA broken
trough. so that the parts barely hung
'gether, and eight pieces bent at right
nPlea vyithout braa Lino Tho - A. |
the curve at the bend was about
ne inch, showing very easy stress d
q the metal. Specimens numbered Is q
nd 16 were sheared from the bracket 81
ates, and number / from a bottom =,
ate.
The half bent strips were then taken
another machine in which a massive b
)st was moved horizontally upon q "
'lid foundation until II met another T.
milar post One Of the strips was "
aced between these two resistless y
lueezers and the hydraulic pressure p
as put upon the movable post As IL r
owed up to its opposite the steel strip | N
as smut up like a closing blade of a
life. A rod just as thick as the strip
SELF was inserted at the jaw of the
ma and another between the two
IDS as they approached each other. m
hen the two parts touched the rods
G pressure was taken off and the test -
as complete. When all had been b
sted IL was found that number 8. sI
ken from the same plate as number .,
already broken. was cracked very
IDLY nearly the whole width Of the ~
nd W
Six Pieces Not Fractured. ID
IL was also cracked at the II
les OF the bend. The remaining six
eces showed no fracture. Out of the
zen specimens tested, therefore, four
d shown brittleness so extraordin- G
y as to raise doubts whether their
emical qualities could be otherwise
an dangerously bad. Two other spec
lens were cracked before the bending :,
as completed, showing brittleness III
obably from over-carbonization or m
e presence OF PHOSPHORUS. In other n,
ords. half the specimens failed TO NJ
me up to the government require ~
ents. M
The board held a private consulta- W
On. at the end of which the following r
Inclusion was reached: Specimens !
e to be taken from upwards of sew "