Show I PROJECTILE AND ARMOR In the Battle For Supremacy the Former a Little Ahead The most interesting experiment at the naval ordnance proving ground at Indian Head in a long time is that planned for this week says the Washington Wash-ington correspondent of the Boston Bos-ton Jourpal Tests are to be made with projectiles fitted with a cap of soft steel The results of the preliminary prelimi-nary tests promise that another step will be taken in the perpetual fight between be-tween armor and shell When nickel steel Harveyized armor was devised the plate seemed to be ahead No steel has appeared equal to the demolition of armor except that now and then a weak plate or a superior su-perior shell has resulted in smashing the armor Now a New York shell maker I H Johnson of Spuyten Duyvil has suggested sug-gested a method by which the shell may gain a victory over the plate and from results already attained it looks as if the equanimity of the armor plate would be disturbed The proposition is to have affixed to the point of steel projectiles a square block of softer metal Strange as it < < s Jj I may seem this apparent obstruction I aids the shell in gaining an entrance into the armor plate It is desirable in firing projectiles especially those which are loaded with some explosive as they would be in time of action that the shell enter the plate as far as possible i before being broken If the shell pen elraAts the plate willhouit breaking and could be depended upon to do that I every time it would mean that great havoc would be wrought on board any ship which suffered such an intrusion from an enemys guns I In armor plate trials so far held it appears that the fine point of the hard steel shell is easily blunted on the face of the plate and th2 experiments show that this fact interferes with the entrance en-trance of the shell into the armor and the shell is generally broken into fragments frag-ments on the face of the plate The New Yorker has suggested the block or cap of softer steel and it is found that this protects the projectile poin on the first fearful shock of impact im-pact with the plate The shell seems to recover itself behind the little cap and after pushing its way through the soft steel block more easily forces its way into the hard face of the armor and through it into the ship where its explosion ex-plosion means something There are some features to be considered con-sidered however before the cap can be adopted in the service It is a question ques-tion whether the cap would not interfere inter-fere with the flight of the shell whether it would affect its course whether it would diminish its velocity during its travel or lessen its energy when it strikes an object All these things and many more technical ones can be easily ascertained at the proving ground and it is to be determined whether there are any dangers in the new device to offset the known advantages advant-ages |