Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BRITAIN AT WORK. It was the boast of Whitworth that his guns would send a shot through any plate. It was the boast of John Brown and Charles Cammell that their plates were invulnerable. The steel-faced plate, the plate of homo- geneous steel, and the plate of specially hardened steel, have superseded the original one of iron, and the trial between projectile and naval armour still goes on, not only in England, but in Germany, France, Russia, and America. Of whatever material, in- tensified by modern research to resist at- tack, the making of an armour plate is most impressive. It is the work of Titans, not remotest corner of the building. On the breast of the furnace fire lies the leviathan plate in a white heat, lapped by blue and golden flame. Just beneath the wide mouth of the furnace the trolley—a low-wheeled waggon—has been pushed. The travelling cranes, set in motion by the engines beyond, swing the heavy chains and the mammoth pincers towards the furnace mouth. The pincers grip the plate like the claws of vultures, and slowly but surely drag it on only muscular themselves, but capable of controlling and directing gigantic machinery to a nicety. The steel required for the manufacture of the plate is cast in ingot form, forged into a slab by hydraulic pressure, and then placed in the huge furnace for heating, and re- mains in the fire from eight to thirty hours, according to the thickness of the plate needed. Then comes the colossal task of getting the mighty plate from the interior of the furnace to the grip of the rolls for thinning and shaping. Many men and adroit appliances are in requisition for this purpose. Expert observation is macle through the furnace peephole. The plate is “ done to a turn.” The men, safeguarded with sacking, body-plates, and protecting shields, group around the furnace door. At a signal it slides open, and the workshop, or armour- plate mill, is filled with intense heat, and with a dazzling radiance that lights up the the trolley, which is forced to the rolls twenty yards away. These heavy revolving forces grip the plate, as it seems, almost stealthily, and move, as it were, by mysterious power. The engine, out of sight, drives by steam a big flywheel and a series of cogwheels, which revolve, and rotate a long shaft that sets the rolls in motion. Like merciless but imperturbable giants, they pass the plate to and fro with apparent ease, till they have reduced it to the required thickness. The plate is then bent to its proper curve at the press, and undergoes numerous heatings and treatment, after which it is cut to shape in order to fit it for its allotted place on the ship. Nasmyth not only introduced his big hammer, but held that the production of steel laid the foundation of the arts. Any- ho'v, one prefers to look at steel rather in relation to constructive than destructive pur- poses, and there is absoluely no limit to its use. It is necessary in one form or other