Compound armour was a type of armour used on warships in the 1880s . By the end of the decade it had been rendered obsolete by nickel-steel armour. Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets or shells, protecting the soldiers inside from enemy fire. ... Diagrams of first and third rate warships, England, 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... // Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic and silvery with a gold tinge Standard atomic weight 58. ...

Prior to the 1880s, all naval armour plating was made from uniform homogenous iron or steel plates backed by several inches of teak to absorb the shock of projectile impact. Compound armour was made from two different types of steel, a very hard but brittle high-carbon steel front plate backed by a more elastic low-carbon wrought iron plate. The front plate was intended to break up an incoming shell, whilst the rear plate would catch any splinters and hold the armour together if the brittle front plate shattered. General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Standard atomic weight 55. ... The steel cable of a colliery winding tower. ... Species Tectona grandis Tectona hamiltoniana Tectona philippinensis Teak (Tectona), also called jati, is a genus of tropical hardwood trees in the family Verbenaceae, native to the south and southeast of Asia, and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation. ... The term elastomer is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, and is preferred when referring to vulcanisates. ...

Steel plates positioned in front of iron plates had been tried unsuccessfully, for example in a trial by the Italian Navy at Spezia in 1876. The problem of welding them together was solved independently by two Sheffield engineers, A. Wilson of John Brown & Company and J. D. Ellis of Cammell Laird. Wilson's technique, invented in 1877[1], was to pour molten steel onto a wrought iron plate, whilst Ellis' was to position the two plates close together and pour molten steel into the gap. In both cases, the plate formed was rolled down to about half of the original thickness. The steel front surface formed about one third of the thickness of the plate. Pre-unitarian navies of the Italian states Regia Marina - Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy (1861 - 1946) Marina Militare - Navy of the Italian Republic (1946 - today) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Map of Italy showing La Spezia in the northwest La Spezia is a city in the Liguria region of northern Italy, at the head of La Spezia Gulf, and capital city of the province of La Spezia. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Welding is a joining process that produces coalescence of materials (typically metals or thermoplastics) by heating them to welding temperature, with or without the application of pressure or by the application of pressure alone, and with or without the use of filler material. ... Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. ... HMS Indefatigable being launched at Clydebank. ... Cammell Laird logo Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Compound armour was initially much better than either iron or steel plates and throughout the decade continuous improvements were made in techniques for manufacturing both compound armour and steel armour. Nevertheless by the end of the decade all-steel plates had decisively edged ahead of compound armour and the latter had become obsolete. Two major reasons for this were the introduction of forged chrome-steel shot in 1886 and the discovery of nickel-steel alloys in 1889 which proved particularly effective as armour plate. General Name, Symbol, Number chromium, Cr, 24 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 6, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 51. ... Year 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

For instance, a trial by the French Navy at Gavre in 1880 found compound armour superior to all-steel plates. An 1884 trial in Copenhagen found that there was little difference between the two types, although compound armour was subsequently ordered by the Danish Navy, probably because it was cheaper. At the same time a similar trial to select the armour of the Italian battleship Lepanto saw 20 inch thick compound armour plate demolished by two shots of the 100-ton guns 10-inch calibre guns which were to be fitted to the ship, whilst the same projectiles were shattered by 20 inches of French Cruesot steel plate. The French Navy, officially called the National Navy (French: Marine Nationale) is the maritime arm of the French military. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... Flag of the Royal Danish Navy Ships of the Royal Danish Navy carry the prefix KMD (Kongelige Danske Marine). ... The firepower of a battleship demonstrated by USS Iowa A battleship is a large, heavily-armored warship with a main battery consisting of the largest caliber of guns. ...

References

• Brown, David K. (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought, warship development 1860-1905. Caxton Publishing Group. ISBN 1-84067-529-2. 
• Gene Slover's US Navy Pages - Naval Ordnance and Gunnery
• Article on armour plates in 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica