The price then fixed was $580 per ton, and the armor to be supplied was
what is known as steel armor.

Before the first contract could be filled, the next Secretary, Mr.
Tracy, had his attention called to some new kinds of armor that were
being introduced.

One kind was being made by an English firm, and another by a French
company.

The English plan was to make what is called compound armor. This was
hard steel welded on to a back of softer metal, the idea being that the
soft back would act as a sort of cushion, and save the front part of the
plate from being cracked by the blows of the shot.

The French system was to make a mixture of steel and nickel. They
claimed that the nickel alloy would give greater strength to the plate.

Secretary Tracy was so anxious that we should have the best possible
armor for our battleships that he ordered a plate from both companies,
and sent them to the Naval Academy at Annapolis to be tested.

The big guns were tried on first one and then the other; the English
armor cracked in four pieces, but on the nickel steel the shot were
shattered into fragments.

Congress immediately voted that the new battleships should be supplied
with nickel-steel armor, and an appropriation was made for this purpose.

Before the new contract could be carried out, President Harrison learned