ARMORED TRAIN, one of the modern instruments of war. Credit has been given to Admiral Fisher of the British navy for the first use of the armored train in war, when, in 1882, he covered steel plates. Great Britain employed ar mored trains in the Boer War which served as a model for all others that fol lowed.
The protected engine carries a Maxim gun, and the protected cars have heavy field guns, operated by machinery, so that any part of the surrounding coun try can quickly be covered. Arrange ments are made to compensate for the recoil, and also to give steadiness and stability to the cars. This latter is accomplished by an arrangement for clamping the truck to the rails by strong screw clips whenever the gun is fired. There are also several steel-plated vans accompanying the train, in which horses and soldiers can be safely conveyed.
The rapidity with which the train can change its base of action renders it a difficult object for the batteries of an enemy to hit, and almost the only way but a capped ball moving at the rate of 2,500 feet pierced it. A Harveyized plate has been pierced to the depth of 14 inches by a six-inch projectile.
Steel, though costlier than chilled iron, for projectiles is in every way superior.
Chilled iron shells often break up be fore the charge explodes. The steel shell casing, moreover, because it can be rolled thinner, can carry a much heavier charge.
to defeat its operations is to wreck or derail it; then it becomes a helpless tar get for long-range guns.
Probably the first attempt in the United States to provide an armored car was that made by the Michigan Cen tral Railroad Company, on the order of the American Express Company, for the purpose of protecting the valuable arti cles carried on its special express trains. These armored or "arsenal cars" were so constructed as to make the center of them with its steel plating a thoroughly bullet-proof room, with apertures so dis posed as to enable the guards within to resist an attack by thieves from any quarter.
During the remarkable dash of the American troops in the Philippines into the northern part of the island of Luzon, in search of the fugitive insurgent leader Aguinaldo, in 1899, much effective work was accomplished by an improvised armored train. In the World War ar mored trains were used on a limited scale.