Lead arsenate

“ The side armour of the Majestic and Magnificent of Harveyised steel was carried to twice the height that was possible with the Royal Sovereign, and though it was only 9 inches thick it offered a resistance to penetration by hostile projectiles at least equal to that of the massive sides of the Royal Sovereign, and was far stronger than the ponderous iron masses piled upon the sides of the great turret ships of a few years earlier. ”

“ The power of artillery had shared in the application of scientific knowledge and benefited accordingly. The great battle between the maker of armour plates and the maker of guns and projectiles had begun. Iron, the conqueror of wood, had but a short reign. Where iron was used a few years ago, steel is now invariably employed. The thoroughness of the victory is shown by the fact that in the whole of the British Isles not one iron vessel, large or small, was built in 1909 for war or commerce. ”

“ The original object of armour being to keep out projectiles, I believe we shall soon adopt that material which shows a marked superiority in this respect, and steel plates appear to me to be winning the day. If the projectiles hold together—and those of modern steel make appear to stand impact well—it stands to reason that the medium they have to pass through should, from front to rear, offer a strenuous resistance. When the face of a compound plate is pierced, the remainder is no great obstacle to an uninjured projectile having a considerable amount of unexpended energy. ”

“ They are of crucible steel, and the breech, instead of being upon a hinge, or in the form of a block, moves round in a D-shaped socket, the escape of gas being further prevented by rings of phosphor-copper. The manner in which the ordnance of this country is constructed is sufficiently familiar to our readers. A tube of steel is encompassed by jackets of wrought-iron, and in this way the toughness of the latter is combined with the hardness of the former. All our guns, as we have said, load at the muzzle, while those of Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Turkey, are breech-loaders. ”

“ We find at almost every period, however, that a fair blow delivered “au pas de charge” with a well-steeled lance might penetrate every defence; and that no armour could be made actually proof against downright blows from a two-handed battle-axe wielded by a powerful and expert rider.
One of the most marked characteristics of this age of plate-armour was a growing appreciation of the intrinsic beauty of steel, and a new desire to invest steel armour with graceful lines. ”

“ To the west were the red coats of the Royal Marines, and from the Union Club to the embouchure of Whitehall swept the glittering, massive curve of the 1st Life Guards—gigantic men mounted on gigantic chargers, steel-breastplated, steel-helmeted, steel-caparisoned, a great war-sword of steel ready to the hand of the powers that be. ”

“ The weapons carried by the infantry, during the several reigns succeeding the Conquest, were bows and arrows, half-pikes, lances, halberds, various kinds of battle-axes, swords, and daggers. Armour was worn on the head and body, and in course of time the practice became general for military men to be so completely cased in steel, that it was almost impossible to slay them. ”

“ Disguise was now impossible. At the first shot, a guttural voice in front of Dujardin’s men was heard to give a word of command. There was a sharp rattle and in a moment the thick black line was tipped with glittering steel.
A roar and a rush, and the Prussian line three deep came furiously like a huge steel-pointed wave, at the French lines. A tremendous wave of fire rushed out to meet that wave of steel: a crash of two hundred muskets, and all was still. ”

“ The splendid glitter of polished steel, so associated in our minds with the knight in armour, appealed scarcely at all to its wearers in this Transition age. In fact, no decided preference can be discovered even for the defensive qualities of steel, and this constitutes perhaps the most marked peculiarity of the age. In the halcyon days of mail, the steel was kept bright and bare, the helm and shield burnished, with nothing to conceal its brilliancy but a coronet and the rich sword-belts which merely enhanced the effect. ”

“ Nothing more warlike is in sight than a row of brass shields, destined for ornament, not for battle. Dark shadows chase one another by the flickering light among copper kettles of ruddy glow, old-fashioned samovars, and massive andirons of tarnished brass. ”

“ The author’s view is that the education and efficiency not only of the cavalry, but of all our mounted troops, home or colonial, regular or volunteer, mounted infantry, mounted riflemen, or yeomanry, depends on clear notions as to the relative value of the rival weapons, and he shows what confusion and obscurity the undefined functions of the steel weapon import into any consideration of the vitally important functions of the mounted rifleman. He advocates one pure type, under a single name—Cavalry—for all purposes. ”

“ Around the vessels I have described were heaped arms, remains of armour, iron instruments, glass bowls, and various objects in ivory and bronze. The arms consisted of swords, daggers, shields, and the heads of spears and arrows, which being chiefly of iron fell to pieces almost as soon as exposed to the air. The shields are of bronze, and circular, the rim bending inwards, and forming a deep groove round the edge. The handles are of iron, and fastened by six bosses or nails, the heads of which form an ornament on the outer face of the shield. ”

“ It is often forgotten that the artillery draught horse has to carry nearly the same weight as a cavalryman's and, at the same time, do his share in dragging along, 'over hill over dale, thorough bush, thorough briar,' a clumsy mass of steel weighing a ton and a half.
A consideration of this fact leads to the conclusion that, if guns are to keep up with cavalry when moving fast and far, certain advantages must be allowed them. ”

“ The opportunities of the steel weapon may have diminished, but to the Cavalry school this weapon remains the weapon par excellence for the Cavalry, the indispensably decisive factor in inter-Cavalry combats, which are to take the form of shock duels, and the main inspiration for all the wide and important range of duties belonging to the arm. No historian has studied more profoundly, nor written more brilliantly upon, the development of mounted tactics than the late Colonel Henderson. ”

“ The 100-ton M.L. gun was undergoing proof at Woolwich. In August a committee of naval officers visited Germany to witness and report upon the trials of Krupp’s new breech-loaders, and these trials, and those of Armstrong in this country, confirmed the formidable character of the new ordnance. Armour was also improving its power; compound armour (of combined steel and iron) was found to possess unexpected powers of resistance to penetration. ”

“ When we consider the very slight defence that the country now possesses in the single-turreted Monitors before alluded to, it would seem imperative to complete with all despatch these vessels, which would represent a force of real power.
These vessels are of iron as to the hulls, but they will be armored with steel or compound armor, and will be armed with the most powerful modern artillery that can be accommodated in their turrets. Their names appear in the navy list as “building.” ”

“ Cannon are made whose balls pierce through and through the wooden planks of a vessel. Immediately these planks are cased with iron. To-day's balls are resisted by the vessel's sides. The plates of iron are doubled ... and forthwith the penetrating force of the projectiles is increased; but those of the next day pierce them. Steel is made to take the place of iron: but after thousands upon thousands have been spent the projectile has always the best of it. ”

“ We are dealing here with men who will never really believe that a steel weapon is the distinguishing mark of a superior Cavalry. How the steel weapon at 371present is to be submitted to them in an intelligible and natural way, I do not know. Without it the whole problem solves itself. It will be possible then to arrange for their inclusion in an Imperial army on some definite and reasoned basis, with functions defined according to their capacity as mounted riflemen. ”

“ But the demands for economy in weight are so great that two armored structures widely separated would seem to furnish as satisfactory a scattering of the heavy gun-power as is justifiable. Guns mounted on the middle line suffer less disturbance in rolling than those mounted either in the waist or en échelon, and their fire should be correspondingly more accurate.” [18]
The Impérieuse and Warspite have powerful ram bows, a steel protective deck, and a belt of compound armor which is 139 feet in length on the water-line, 8 feet in width, and 10 inches thick. ”

“ We have at present only one category of troops which professes to combine both functions—namely, our regular Cavalry, who carry both a steel weapon and a good firearm. I can imagine a reader saying, “Granted that your analysis of the rival merits of the two weapons is correct; you admit that the steel may conceivably have a remote sphere of utility: cannot the Cavalry do all that you picture mounted riflemen as doing, and, in addition, when the rare opportunities present themselves, use the steel effectively?” ”

“ The leader of the second company was clad in a complete suit of chain armour, similar to that in vogue two centuries before, but with the addition of a steel breastplate, gorget, tassets, and sollerets. His hands were encased with brazen gauntlets, the backs of which were composed of thin overlapping plates studded with knots of steel. On his head he wore a steel bascinet with a beaklike visor, but the latter had been thrown back, disclosing a dark, cruel-looking face, partially hidden by a heavy beard and moustache. ”

“ A steel needle or pen-knife132 has great strength. But it is only nickel-steel that has both toughness and strength. This makes it the best metal we know for armour plate. A battleship with a hull covered with steel or iron would be shattered to pieces if it were hit by one of the modern shells. If the armour plate is made of nickel-steel, the largest projectile makes only a dimple, such as you would in a pat of butter by sticking your finger into it. This property of toughness is added to the steel by putting in three and one half per cent. ”

“ The Seventh Legion, locking their great shields close together over their heads, came like a great tortoise with shell of steel close to the foot of the wall. Vainly the Britons stormed at them with missiles and yells and fantastic dance. Working beneath that roof of steel the legion picked the weak wall down and made a causeway clean through. ”

“ Thine elegant construction, thy light sides, showing no sign of the heavy threatening defensive turrets, such as are carried by our war-ships destined to fight the foe, indicate that thou art consecrated to works of peace. Lightly, as on the wing, to cross the seas, bringing distant lands closer to each other, giving rest and recreation to workers, happiness to the Imperial children, and to the august mother of the country,—that is thine appointed task. May thy light artillery be worn by thee as an ornament and not as a weapon of war. ”

“ It is true that a heavy mass of iron can through sheer weight bend and indent a narrow band of steel, but it cannot break the steel. Thus, through continually renewing their attacks and by training upon us an artillery fire the violence of which beggars all description, the French succeeded in bending back our lines here and there. ”

“ The Arquebusier in the early part of the sixteenth century carried little body armour; he is usually represented in the slashed and ribbed dress of Henry VIII.’s time, with a bonnet bearing a feather upon his head. He was provided with a matchlock arquebus and a rest, with a sword at the left side, while hanging from a cord which crossed the body from the left shoulder were the circular powder-flasks and bullet-bag. The arquebusiers opened the battle, being in the van with the artillery.
Fig. 416.—Sabbatons, Hatfield House. ”

“ It is desirable that Cavalry soldiers, equally with their comrades in the Infantry, should have a steel weapon of some kind for use in the assault by night, in a mist, or on other occasions when a fire-fight might be impossible or inadvisable. ”

“ The men-at-arms of the fifteenth century cased themselves and their horses in iron to resist crossbow bolts, lance-thrusts, and strokes of axe or sword. Fire artillery, which at first aimed at nothing more than substituting powder for the mechanism of engines worked by counterpoise or ropes, and like these discharged only stone balls, becomes improved and uses iron balls and leaden bullets ”

“ So far as they go, they apply just as closely to mounted riflemen as to Infantry, though the critic himself is wholly unconscious of the analogy and of the implied condemnation he over and over again makes on the theory underlying the steel armament of Cavalry. ”

“ Now, with this reduction in the weight of the hull, we may employ 9-inch armour-plates in lieu of the 41⁄2-inch armour-plates now employed. It must be borne in mind that the resistance offered by the armour-plate is equal to the square of its thickness; hence a vessel constructed in the manner proposed would bear a blow of four times the force that the present structure is calculated to withstand. Thousands of Bessemer steel projectiles are now being made for Russia.... ”