gside of it there is
a well of oil. The car brings the cannon to the edge of the ditch, and
a steam crane performs the operation of tempering with as much ease as
we would temper a knife blade.

In the presence of such engines of attack it was necessary to think
of defense. The hammer that forges the cannon also gives us the armor
plate to brave it. This time the ingot is flattened under the blows of
the hammer, and even takes the rounded form of the stern, if it be so
desired. Thus is obtained the wall of steel that we wish.

Will it be possible to keep up the fight long? In order that one may
get some idea of this for himself, let us rapidly describe an entirely
peaceful contest that took place recently upon the coast of Italy. Two
rival plates, one of them English and the other French, were placed
in the presence of the Spezia gun, which weighs 100 tons. These plates
were strongly braced with planks and old armor plate. Three shots were
to be fired at each of the plates.

In the first shot the ball was of hardened cast iron, and weighed
1,990 pounds. The English plate was filled with fissures, while the
Creusot did not show a single one. The ball penetrated it about seven
inches, and was broken into small pieces.

In the second shot the projectile was the same, but the charge was
greater. The shot may be calculated from the velocity, which was 1,530
feet. It was equal to what the great hammer would give were it to fall
from a height of a hundred yards. The English plate was completely
shivered, while the French exhibited but six very fine fissures
radiating from the point struck. The ball entered 8 inches, and was
broken as in the first experiment.

The third shot fired was with a steel ball, against the French plate,
the English being _hors de combat_. The penetration was the same; the
ball was not broken, but was flattened at the point like the head of a
bolt.

We should like to speak of those magnificent workshops in which the
immense naval pieces are adjusted, where the shafts of helixes 60
feet in length are turned, and of the boiler works, where one may see
generators that have a heating surface exceeding 2,000 square feet,
for it requires no less than that to supply 8,000 H.P., and thus
triumph over the force of inertia and those colossal iron-clads. But
how describe in a magazine article what the eye cannot take in in a
day?

Despite all our regrets, we have to pass over some things, but our
duty wi