Report of the Armor Factory Board, with Accompanying Documents.

Proposals for a planned federal steel plant to manufacture plate armor for U.S. battleships.

This uncommon volume was published in Washington, D.C. by the Government Printing Office in 1898. It contains the previous year’s annual report of the Navy Department’s Armory Factory Board, established to consider the steps “necessary to establish a Government armor factory”. The Navy was finding it difficult to acquire high-quality steel plate for its expanding fleet of battleships and armored cruisers. Members of the committee visited three foundries and spoke with a number of industry experts before submitted the enclosed designs.

The first 22 pages provide a brief overview of the board, copies of relevant correspondence, and descriptions of the enclosed diagrams (38 total). Plans and cross-sections include the following; General arrangement of shops, Open-hearth building (4), Forging and cementing shop (4), Boiler house (2), Power house, Bending and tempering shop (3), Machine shop (2), Detail of stacks, Erecting shop (2), Blacksmith shop, Locomotive house, Carpenter shop, Office, Laboratory, Heating furnace, Car-bottom furnace (2), Reheating furnace, Ladle and transfer trucks (2), Tempering furnace, Detail of truss, Siemens gas producers, Forging press, and Bending press.

The volume concludes with approximately 40 photographs of three primary armories – the Bethlehem Iron Company, the Carnegie Steel Company, and the Illinois Steel Company. These images offer a fascinating visual catalog of the massive machinery required to forge, found, and rivet America’s war machines for the impending conflict with Spain.