Armor plates must often be bent or curved to single or double curvature and sometimes to a warped surface to fit the form of the ship.  There are several methods of bending plates.  One method employs a cast iron slab of the required form, which is placed on the piston of a hydraulic press.  The armor plate is placed face down on this slab, and on top of the plate are laid packing blocks of cast iron, of such sizes and shapes as to conform to the required curve.  These blocks take against the upper table of the press, when the piston is forced up, and the hot plate is thus dished to the proper form.

In the French method of bending, an anvil or bed plate of the required curve is used, and the armor plate is forced to take the curve by being hammered all over its upper surface with a specially designed steam hammer.

The edges of the plate are trimmed by large, powerful slotting machines or circular saws; the latter, however, operate in exactly the same manner as a slotter, except that there is no return motion to the tool.  Each tooth of the saw is but a slotting tool, and these teeth are, by screws, rendered capable of being nicely adjusted in the circumference of the saw.

The plates are fastened to the hulls and backing by heavy bolts, varying in size according to the weight of the individual plate.  For the 6,000 ton armored ships, these bolts are from 2.75 to 3.1 inches in diameter and from 18.45 to 23 inches in length.  They are tapped two or three inches into the armor and do not go through the plate.  They pass through wrought iron tubes in the backing and set up with cups, washers and nuts against the inner skin of the ship.

At steel works where plates for our new navy are being manufactured, there are inspectors who look after the government’s interests.  Officers of the navy are detailed for this work, and their duty is to watch the manufacture of plates through each part of the process and to see that the conditions of the specifications and contract are complied with.

The inspection and testing of armor plates consists in examining them for pits, scales, laminations, forging cracks, etc., in determining the chemical analysis of specimens taken from different parts, in determining the physical qualities of specimens taken longitudinally and transversely, and the ballistic test.  Specifications for these different tests are constantly undergoing change, and it would be impossible to state, with exactness, what the requirements are or will be in the near future.  The ballistic test is the important one, and is made by taking one plate of a group and subjecting it to the fire of a suitable gun.  The other tests are simply to insure, as far as practicable, that all the other plates of the group are similar to and are capable of standing as severe a ballistic test as the test plate.