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ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS 263 ARMOR PLATES stability to the cars. This latter is accomplished by an arrangement for clamping the truck to the rails by strong screw clips whenever the gun is fired. There are also several steel-plated vans accompanying the train, in which horses and soldiers can be safely conveyed. The rapidity with which the train can change its base of action renders it a difficult object for the batteries of an enemy to hit, and almost the only way but a capped ball moving at the rate of 2,500 feet pierced it. A Harveyized plate has been pierced to the depth of 14 inches by a six-inch projectile. Steel, though costlier than chilled iron, for projectiles is in every way superior. Chilled iron shells often break up be- fore the charge explodes. The steel- shell casing, moreover, because it can be rolled thinner, can carry a much heavier charge. ARMORED TRAIN to defeat its operations is to wreck or derail it; then it becomes a helpless tar- get for long-range guns. Probably the first attempt in the United States to provide an armored car was that made by the Michigan Cen- tral Railroad Company, on the order of the American Express Company, for the purpose of protecting the valuable arti- cles carried on its special express trains. These armored or "arsenal cars" were so constructed as to make the center of them with its steel plating a thoroughly bullet-proof room, with apertures so dis- posed as to enable the guards within to resist an attack by thieves from any quarter. During the remarkable dash of the American troops in the Philippines into the northern part of the island of Luzon, in search of the fugitive insurgent leader Aguinaldo, in 1899, much effective work was accomplished by an improvised armored train. In the World War ar- mored trains were used on a limited scale. ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS, pro- jectiles so constructed as to bore through the metallic plates with which modern ships of war are coated, It has been stated as an axiom that any armor-plate which may be carried on a ship may be penetrated. A Ki'uppized plate, eight inches thick, resisted a shell striking it with a velocity of 2,300 feet a second. ARMOR PLATES, slabs of metal with which the sides of war vessels are cov- ered for the purpose of rendering them shot-proof. The idea of using slabs of iron or steel for protection against mis- siles is not a recent invention. The first attempt to use armor-plate on the sides of ships was made by John Stevens, of Hoboken, in 1812. He built a vessel shaped somewhat similar to the later vessels of the "Monitor" type, and sheathed it along the water line with laminated iron plates. His vessel was offered to the United States Government but was not accepted. The French were the first to adopt armor-plating. In 1854 they sent floating batteries to the Black Sea, sheathed with 4% inches of lami- nated iron, which was proof against the fire of the 68-pounders, then the most powerful guns. The British admiralty, following this example, sent out very slow and unmanageable iron-clad batter- ies in 1855-1856. These batteries pro- tected the ships very well against round balls from the unrifled cannon of the day. It was not, however, till the Ameri- can Civil War that armor-plating came into general use. The Confederate ram "Merrimac" was the first practical ar- mor-plated vessel in the United States, her sheathing consisting of railroad raite. Her successful opponent, the "Monitor," was heavily sheathed with laminated iron plates extending several feet be- low the water line.