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Show TEST EXPLOSION A VALUAELG ONE WASHINGTON. Nov. 'nioniui-tln 'nioniui-tln valuable to nava'. arel-lte' ts i:t expected to result fii in tit.- test to v, hlch the monitor PurlMi was subjected sub-jected yesterday at Hanip'tn Koad when heavy eharfies of nil ros?ycerine Relatin.? were exploded against her turret and waterllne armor. Admiral Mason T.tIxk. Hear Admiral Newton K. Mason, chief of the bureau of ordnune of the navy, is of the opinion th.it such in attack will nc-ver b re.pllcrited in actual warfare. Hut he :iid valuAb e Information whs cainjd in ronnection with the manner of bad. Ins cf armor ar-mor platos in warship construction f.- that the mavlmuni of resistance in buckling and dilod;iicnt under any kind of attack may he secured. Rear Admiral Mason !i.liever the explosions would not have had the same effect on a modern battleship whose resisting power was much t'veater than that of the mo.iltor. Thickness of the Armor. Admiral Mason call aiv-ntlon to the turret armor of tho I,:iitan which has a thickness of eicht Inches, as i.p;iinst twelve and fourteen Inches in the battleship of the latest def-ln. The sld'i armor of the monitor at the point attacked, lie ada. wn ten inches thick, tapering to live Inches at (he lower water lino and only two and a half feet below the existing water lino at the time : the test. Turret Not Vitally Damaged While the armor of the turret, p.eainHt which the first explosion of "i'C pounds of explosive Kclatlne was n tele, was considerably bent and cracked. Admiral Ma "on &ays i hit so far as Is now apparent, the tunet was nut vitally riamngecj. The aecon1 charRe. directed agalnpt the armor belt, buckled the plate badly and 0-ncd up the sams at the end and started a bad 'oak. While It is impossible to state 'he extent of the damage below the armor belt, the admiral vays there is no Indication Indica-tion I hat It was serious. The wider plates cf a battleship's belt, the 8talenient savs, would have resisted hiickiln more cfTi dually and the longitudinal hull. head which exists ex-ists In all modern ships would have confined tho flooding within narrow limits. |