cavalry and to each company of infantry to clean the arms. Aboard a man-of-war the armorer and armorer's mate did the blacksmith work of the vessel: but of late years the armorer is a petty officer and one of the gunner's gang, his duties being the care of the arms used by the ship's company. Aboard ship each man is not responsible for the care of his weapon, as is the case with soldiers.
ARMOR'ICA (Celt, ar, on or near + mor, sea, Lat. mare. Slav. more; cf. Pomerania, Slav., coastland, and Paramaribo, the dwelling near the sea). The country of the Armoriei, the name by which the people occupying the coast of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire were known to Caesar. At a later period the name Armorica was confined to the country afterwards styled Britannia Minor, or Bretagne.
ARMORIC LAN'GUAGE. See Celtic Language.
AR'MOR PLATE. The protection of ves-
sels of war by metallic plating began soon after
the introduction of heavy guns on board ship,
but was a matter of little importance until the
introduction of shell-fire and the increased power of guns made the protcction all'ordcd by thick
wooden sid<-s wliolly inadequate. The demand
for armor became more imperative as time went
on, owing to the greater use of machinery and
apparatus which needed protection, even against
comparatively small guns; and, in recent years,
its use has been further stimulated by the introduction of guns of the rapid-firing types. The
first important use of armor plate was made in
the operations against Gibraltar in 1782. The
Chevalier d'Arcon had caused to be constructed
10 Moating batteries of GOO to 1200 tons, armed
with 10 to 20 guns each. The hulls were of
wood, protected with bars of iron laid on at
short intervals, with an outer covering of cork.
Sand was jjlaeed in the spaces between the bars,
and it was to be kept wet to avoid danger of
fire from red-hot shot. The deck over the guns
was of very solid construction, and covered with
thi(k green hides. At the attack on Gibraltar of
September 13, 1782, one of the vessels took fire,
and. as they were moored very close together,
the conllagratlon spread to the others, and they
were all destroyed. Xo provision had been made
for extinguishing fire, as it was thought the
means to prevent it were ample. Boats, even,
were not supplied, so that of the 5260 men who
formed the crews, only 487 were saved. Subse-
quent to this were many suggestions as to the
employment of armor plating. About 1812,
Col. ,7ohn Stevens, of New .Jersey, prepared plans
for an armored steam vessel for harbor defense.
Explosive shells, which had hitherto been used
only in mortars, were in 1824 prepared for
service in the ordinary smooth-bore guns of the
French ships: and at that time General Paix-
hans. in an oflicial letter to the French Govern-
ment, predicted that this new departure woiild
force the creation of armored ships, .hout 1830
the French Government began experiments (the
first were carried out at Metz) to determine the
resistance of earth, wood, and different types of
masonry to the penetration of spherical projec-
tiles. These experiments were continued at in-
tervals for several years, and the results ob-
tained are still considered of some value.
In 184L General Paixhans, who invented the
shell for low-angle fire, recommended the appli-
cation of armor jjlate to the sides of vessels as
a protection against his own missiles. His plans
were rejected, but they attracted much attention.
In 1841, also, the sons of Col. .John .Stevens pro-
posed to the United States Navy Department to
build an ironclad steamer of higli speed, in which
all of the machinery, including the propellers,
was to be below the water-line. The proposal
was accepted, and tlie act of Congress, approved
April 14, 1842, authorized the Secretary of the
Navy to "contract for the construction of a war
steamer, shot and shell proof, to be built princi-
pally of iron, upon the plan of the said Ste-
vens." The Stevens brothers had been carrying
on armor experiments of their o-ti, and as a
result of them had decided that a thickness of
4.5 inches would be sufficient to render the new
vessel invulnerable. Just as the Stevens ship
was about to be conunenced the performances
of John Ericsson's large wrought-iron gun
showed that 4.5 inches of laminated armor was
insufficient for the purpose in view, so that when
the Stevens battery was finally begun in 1854 —
two months before any armored craft in Europe
had been laid down — it was as a Larger vessel
than that originally designed, in order to carry
armor of 6.75 inches. The Stevens battery was
never completed, largely because general inter-
est in the project subsided, but specifically be-
cause Congress refused further appropriations.
In 1841 Theodore R. Timby submitted to
the United States War Dejiartment plans for a
revolving armor-plated battery, and in 1843 he
filed a caveat for "a metallic revolving fort, to be
used on land or vxater, and to be revolved by
propelling engines located within the same, and
acting upon suitable machinery." In 1845 M.
Dupuy de Lome submitted the plans of an iron-
hulled armor-plated frigate. He believed that by
substituting iron for wood he could reduce the
weight of the hull from 42 per cent, of the dis-
placement to 23, and this saving would be suffi-
cient to give the sliip an armor belt 8 feet wide
and 6.5 inclics thick. The plans were rejected on
the ground that he had overestimated the weight
which would be saved, that, even if the pro-
posals were feasible, a 6.5-inch belt was not in-
vulnerable, and that, moreover, the battery was
left without protection. In 1846, the French con-
structors were called upon for plans of an ar-
mored floating battery for coast defense. One
of these provided for an iron hull and was at
first accepted, as the light liull permitted an
increased thiclcness of arnior. but it was finally
rejected on account of the anticipated deteriora-
tion and loss of speed from the fouling of the
bottom. No steps were taken to build any of
the batteries at this time : but at the outbreak of
the Crimean War the plans of the b.atteries were
again taken up and experiments with armor
were begun at Vincennes to determine what the
proper kind sheuld be. These tests resulted in
showing the inferiority of laminated plating as
compared with solid plates of the same thick-
ness. Solid plates 4 inches thick were broken,
but not pierced, by both 32-pounder solid shot
and 8-inch and !)-inch hollow shot. It was therefore decided to armor the batteries with 4.5-inch plates. About 1846 or 1847, Lieutenant Hunter, of the United States Navy, brought out a plan of an armor-deck for the protection of the machinery of vessels, and it very closely resembled.
