Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1902 — A New Armor Plate. [ARTICLE]

A New Armor Plate.

It has long been known that ordinary wrought iron can be converted into high grade steel without melting the iron by simply placing carbon in contact with the metal at a red heat. The carbon is absorbed by tho iron, and the latter is thus transformed into steel. The ordinary cementation process, by which much of the steel used in cutlery is made, is an example of this process. It is now reported, however, that Lieutenant Davis of the United States navy has adopted an electrical method of the same sort for case hardening armor plates. The plates are acted on while hot by high tension electric currents through large carbon anodes, from which the particles of carbon are carried into the metal. It is said that the surface of a plate can be rendered harder by five hours of such treatment than by any other known method. There great saving in time ns well as mqtal.