Secretary Tracy was so anxious that we should have the best possible
armor for our battleships that he ordered a plate from both companies,
and sent them to the Naval Academy at Annapolis to be tested.
The big guns were tried on first one and then the other; the English
armor cracked in four pieces, but on the nickel steel the shot were
shattered into fragments.
Congress immediately voted that the new battleships should be supplied
with nickel-steel armor, and an appropriation was made for this purpose.
Before the new contract could be carried out, President Harrison learned
that a man named Harvey had invented a process for hardening the surface
of the steel used in making tools. This process was found to be so
excellent that it revolutionized the making of tools, which were
thereafter made from the hardened or "Harveyized steel."
This process had never been applied to any large surface, but it was
thought that if Harvey's method could be used for the nickel-steel
plates, a perfect armor would be the result.
The experiment was therefore tried. A large nickel-steel plate was
subjected to the process and then tested at Annapolis.
The result was highly satisfactory; all the projectiles sent against the
plate were shattered, while the plate remained comparatively uninjured.
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