§ MR. KNIGHTLEYsaid, be wished to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether, in the Contracts for the Iron-cased 1063 Vessels ordered by the Government, and now in course of construction, any stipulation has been made as to the quality of the iron to be used; and whether it is proposed to subject the plates to any, and if any, what test to prove their strength? He had heard that the worn-out iron of railroads had been used for the casing of those vessels, and there seemed to be no reason to doubt that a great part of that iron consisted of what was technically called "cinder iron," that was to say, iron that was mere dross and refuse.
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, that the whole question of the plating of those iron-cased ships was at present under the serious consideration of the Admiralty, and a Commission was sitting with a view of testing in every possible way the various qualities of iron that might be used for that purpose. When he stated that Dr. Piercy, of the Geological Museum, and Mr. Fair-bairn, and Captain Hay of the Royal Navy, as well as other eminent scientific men, were giving their assistance to the Admiralty in the prosecution of that inquiry, the House would see that the best possible mode was adopted of arriving at an accurate conclusion upon the subject. The skin of those vessels was subject to a very severe test. It had first of all to undergo the tensile test—that was to say, the power it had of drawing out, and it was exposed to a test which had a bearing equal to 22lbs. to the square inch, which was a test of a very severe description, they had besides to undergo the test of bending. With regard to the armour plates, they had no means of subjecting them to any test, because they had no machinery for ascertaining with any precision the tensile strength of 4½ inch plates. But the Admiralty subjected those plates to a very severe test by firing guns at certain portions of them from very short distances; and they had already found that they might make improvements on the plating of the Warrior by using rolled plates instead of hammered plates. He was not aware that any inferior iron, such as that to which the hon. Gentleman referred, had been used in the casing of those ships, but he would take care to make inquiries for the purpose of ascertaining whether there was any foundation for that statement.