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Show 9-' AMERICAN ARMOR. It Is Superior to the Foreign Article A Great Gun. Washington, May 23. The thickest piece of armor ever manufactured in this country was successfully tested at the Indian Head proving grounds Saturday. One of the 14-inch 14-inch nickel steel diagonal plates for the Indiana, In-diana, the tirst of the battle ships armor plates completed by the Bethlehem iron works, twenty diagonal platen for the battle bat-tle ships Indiana and Massachusetts, aggregating aggre-gating 800 tons and representing half a million dollars in value, will at once be accented ac-cented as the result of the test. The result shows conclusively the ability of American armor makers to supply armor p a e of the highest quality. The conditions were more severe than any tests imposed by foreiirn countries. Under the teims of the contract the projectile might go nearly through the slate and backing back-ing and be accepted if no serious cracks de-velope. de-velope. None of the three shots tired succeeded suc-ceeded in getting far enough into the slate to show auy backing. Three shots were fired near the middle region of the plate, three points impact forming equilateral triangle. tri-angle. All three shots reliOUXi.tLld one ff them back to th'e muzzle of the gun, a distance dis-tance of 135 feet, the deepest penetration being be-ing fourteen inches, the other two inches or two less. Ouly few slight cracks immediately surrounding sur-rounding the burr of each orifice were made. A ten inch gun was used in the test. Two of the projectiles were first imported, the third made by the same process in this country. The latter wasj thrown out entirely en-tirely uninjured, while one of the imported broke in two, thus showimr a splendid record for the American projectile as well as American plate. The projectiles weighed 50 pounds, a powder charge of 40 pounds, giving a striking velocity of 1,410 feet to the second. |