firmly. The best form of spike I have seen is the curved safety railroad spike; this spike takes in the tie a position which enables it to resist the thrust of the rail against it much more effectually than the ordinary spike can possibly do. I have seen in good condition, one of these curved spikes which was said to have been driven eight times. The cost of the curved safety spike is more than that of the ordinary spike, but it is better made, holds the track better, and, I believe, is worth more than the difference asked for it.—J.A. Hall, on Construction and Maintenance of Track, before American Society of Civil Engineers.

THE EXPERIMENTS AT THE ANNAPOLIS PROVING GROUNDS.

The desperate war that has been waging between the gun and armor plate, ever since the period when protective plates were first applied to naval constructions, is familiar to all. In this conflict the advantage seems to lean toward the side of the gun, the power of penetration of which can be increased to almost indefinite limits, at least theoretically, while we quickly reach the extreme thicknesses of metal that can be practically employed for the protection of ships.

So, in recent times, researches have been making upon the efficacy of armor plating, no longer in its exaggeration of thickness, but in the intrinsic quality of the metal of which it is composed. Metallurgists have applied themselves to the work and have thus brought out various products, among which the plates called "compound," of Messrs. Cammell & Co., have obtained a great notoriety. These plates, formed of a true plating of steel upon a bed of soft iron, have been much in vogue in the English navy, and seemed as if they were to be adopted about everywhere.

The Creusot works alone, of all competitors, were able to fight against the general infatuation. Many comparative experiments had already demonstrated the superiority of the Creusot "all steel" plates over the Cammell plates, but Messrs. Schneider & Go. were not willing to stop here, and finally produced the new nickel steel plate, which is by far superior to their steel plates.

Some comparative trials of these various armor plates have recently been made by a military commission of the United States at the Annapolis proving grounds. Three plates, one a Cammell, the second a steel, and the third a nickel steel (the two last from Creusot), were here submitted to firing, under absolutely identical conditions.

Our engravings show the proving grounds and the details of the arrangements adopted for backing the plates.

Of the three plates, the Cammell was the thickest (11 in.) The steel one was 103/4 in. in thickness, and the nickel steel 101/2 in. The last, therefore, was at a disadvantage with respect to the two others.

The plates were arranged tangentially to an arc of a circle whose center was occupied by the pivot of the gun, and consequently at right angles with the latter. The piece employed was a 6 in. gun, 35 calibers in length. The distance of its muzzle from the plates attacked was 28 ft.

The charge was 44 lb. of brown prismatic powder. The projectile was a 100 lb. Holtzer shell. Under these circumstances, the initial velocity was 2,074 ft. and the energy at the impact was 9,970,396 ft. lb.

A beginning was made by firing four shots at each plate in the bisectrix of the corners. Then the 6 in. gun was replaced by an 8 in. one, throwing a 209 lb. Firth projectile, with an energy at the impact of 20,795,000 ft. lb.

Each of the plates then received in its center a final blow from this projectile.

Our engraving represents the state of the plates after this last shot.

ARMORED PLATE TESTS AT ANNAPOLIS.

There is no need of being a great expert in questions of artillery to discover on what side the superiority is found, and to see that the Cammell plate, almost entirely in fragments, is absolutely incapable of protection, while its two competitors are still in a state to resist.

In one of our engravings may be seen, too, the state of the shells after each of the three shots.

The commission immediately and unanimously classified the three plates in the following order of superiority: (1) Nickel steel; (2) all steel; (3) compound.

This triumph of French industry merits mention so much the more in that it was obtained in a series of experiments made in a foreign country—that is to say, under indisputable conditions of impartiality.-L'Illustration.

HIGH EXPLOSIVES IN WARFARE.¹

By Commander F.M. BARBER, U.S.N.

In commencing my paper this evening I desire to call your attention to the fact that I am dealing with a subject which, though not theoretical, is still hardly practical, for as a matter of fact high explosives cannot be said to have yet been regularly used in warfare, and I hope you will pardon me if in consequence my statements appear in some respects unsatisfactory and my theories unsound. My subject, however, is no more obscure than future naval warfare generally. All civilized nations are spending millions of money for fighting purposes directly in opposition to the higher feelings of the better class of their inhabitants. The political atmosphere of Europe is the cause of this, but its consequence is the development of theoretical plans of ships which are no sooner commenced than the rapid march of mechanical, chemical, and electrical science shows them to be faulty in some particular feature, and others are laid down only to be superseded in their turn.

None of these crafts are obsolete (to use the popular expression of the day). All are theoretically better than any which have stood the test of battle; but each excels its predecessor in some particular feature. The use of high explosives is the direct cause of the very latest transformations in marine architecture, and is destined to work still greater changes; but it will require a war between the most civilized nations of the world, and a long war, to either confirm or condemn the many theoretical machines and methods of destruction that modern science has produced. I say a war between the most civilized nations, since it is only they that can supply the educated intellect that is necessary to both attack and defense. Under other circumstances false conclusions as to weapons and results are certain to be drawn.

At the bombardment of Alexandria, the English armorclads, with their rifled guns, were not nearly as efficient against the feeble chalk fortifications as our wooden ships would have been with smooth bore guns. On the other hand I saw on shore after the bombardment hundreds of torpedoes and miles of cable that the Egyptians did not understand how to use. The French war with China was equally unsatisfactory from a military point of view. The Chinese at Foochow were annihilated because the French opened fire first, and the only shell that penetrated a French ironclad was filled with lamp black instead of powder. The national riots that we are accustomed to hear of in South America are likewise of little instructive value; they buy their weapons of more civilized people, but there is always something fatally defective about the tactics pursued in