Identifier: everyboysbookofr00prot (find matches)
Title: Every boy's book of railways and steamships
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Protheroe, Ernest
Subjects: Railroads Steamboats
Publisher: London : Religious Tract Society
Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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whichwere bound round with 105 miles of wire, foundthat even the toughest missiles could not play-havoc with the new covering, and to pierce it costat least £1000. But even this did not spell finalityin the matter of armour plate, for in due courseappeared the Krupp plate, only 6 inches in thick-ness but so adamantine that projectiles striking itat a high velocity are shattered as though theywere made of glass. Meantime it was found that the increasinglylarge guns needed to be worked more than on thebroadside only; and thus they were mounted uponrevolving turrets by means of which projectilescould be hurled broadside, fore or aft. Sails wereentirely abandoned, and duplicate machinery andtwin-screws were provided to give a vessel a doublechance of escaping a breakdown, which would leaveher at the mercy of a foe. The Warrior was completed in 1861, anda glance at the Devastation, the Thunderer,or the Dreadnought in 1875, showed how shehad been left in the rear in the race for efiective-
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STEAM IN THE NAVY 341 ness. These new turret vessels varied from 9000to 11,000 tons, of which about a third was accountedfor by the armour protection. They carried four3 5-ton guns, from each of which a charge of200 lbs. of powder shot a projectile weighing800 lbs. Presently the Inflexible put thesevessels in the shade, for she was plated with 24inches of iron, and carried four 80-ton guns,throwing projectiles of 1700 lbs. Our chief concern, however, being steam ratherthan armaments, we must leave the gunner andthe armour-plater, and content ourselves with abrief description of the various types of war vesselof to-day. In 1906 a new type of battleship made herappearance, and her dimensions alone show howlittle she resembled the vessel of the same namethat was the pride of the fleet in the earlyseventies. H.M.S. Dreadnouc^ht has a tonnag-e of17,900; length, 490 feet; beam, 82 feet; draught,26 feet; speed, 21 knots. Cost, in round figures,£2,000,000. This huge vessel aimed at meeting t

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