Iowa Is Stanch

Wáshikcton, Sept. 5.- The new battle Bhip Iowa will withstand the proyectiles of tho best twelve-inch gun afloat. That was the conolusion drawn from one of the most important tests ever made at the government proving ground at Indian Head Since the equipment of modern battleships with heavy armor there has been in naval quarters a question as to whether the framework of ships so armored could resist tho crushing force of a blow from one of tho big guns, even though the arpior itself was capable of keeping the projeotile out. Hitherto all tests of armor have been made against an unyieiding wooden butt. Yesterday tho United States, for the flrst time since the use of modern guns and modern armor, began experiments to determine the actual strain and injury to which a battleship would be subjected if struck by a projectdie. Fixed Up a Section of the Ship. For that purpose a side armor-plate of the battleship Iowa, now building at the Crarup yards in Philadelphia, was fltted up on an actual reproduction of a section of the ship. It consisted of the inner and outer bottoms of five-eighths-inch 6teel, forming compartments with lateral steel bulkiieads four feet apart. Outside the outer bottom was the skin of fiveeighths-inch steel and between this and tho fourteen-inoh armor-plate were ten inches of solid oak backing. Above was the protective deck and below the main deck, the whole being backed above and below by oak of the estimated strength of the main decks. The plate itself was 16 feet by 1)4, 14 inches thick at the top and sloping toward the bottom to a thickness of seven inches. Seci-etary Herbert Witnesses the Xest. The importancc of the test was such that Secretary Herbert himself went down the river to witness it, and there were more than the usual numbor of officers from the ordnance and construetion bureaus. The shots wore flred at 250 yards at right angles to the plate, to secure the normal impact. The first was a 500-lb. Carpenter projectile from a ten-inch gvin, driven by 140 pounds of Dupont's brown prlsmatic powder. It struck the plate with a velocity of 1,482 feet per second, or with an onergy of 741,000 foot pounds. The projectile was driven into the plate aloout six inches, and not a single injury to the baclcing was discovered after a careful exaniination, save the loosening of sevcn bolts connecting the protectlon deck with the armor. This was not considered serious. Gave It a Still Severer Test. Thcsecond shot was also from a 10-inch gun, but the charge was increased to 160 pounds, whieh increased the volocity to 1,863 feet per second, so that it struck with an energy of 931, 000 foot pounds. This shot also spent itself on the plate without creating a sign of a crack, or injury, or straining the framework. There was not a bulge in the plate or frame of the vcssel. A single bolt, however, was driven out Having thus tested the 14-inch plate it was decided to test the frame work to a still severer test and an 850-pouud Wheeler Sterling shell, driven by 460 pounds o powder, was fired at it from a 12-inch gun. The projectile struck with a veloc ity of 1,800, or an energy of 1,530,000 foot pounds. This shot should, according to the most estimates, have penetrated a 16inch Harveyized plate. Kesult Considered Kemarkable. Although it cracked the plate, which was already weaked by the two previou shots, and penetrated to the wood backing it did not get through the backing. Tho enormous recoil of the plate, however pulled it outj from the wood about three fourths of an inch. It also struck close to a bolt and sent it with tremendous force across the compartment against the inner bottom, which was bulged, but not pene trated. The outer bottom was slightly bulged, also, and the bulkhead where th shot struck buckled. On the whole, th result of the test with the plate and frame work was considered remarkable. The re sistance of the framework really aston ished Secretary Herbert, who was greatly rejoiced at the result.