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 that a man named Harvey had invented a process for hardening the surface of the steel used in making tools. This process was found to be so excellent that it revolutionized the making of tools, which were thereafter made from the hardened or "Harveyized steel." This process had never been applied to any large surface, but it was thought that if Harvey's method could be used for the nickel-steel plates, a perfect armor would be the result. The experiment was therefore tried. A large nickel-steel plate was subjected to the process and then tested at Annapolis. The result was highly satisfactory; all the projectiles sent against the plate were shattered, while the plate remained comparatively uninjured. The success of the Harvey process on the nickel steel was universally acknowledged; other countries abandoned their previous style of armor, and the United States set out to build a number of new ships that should be protected with this invulnerable armor. It was soon found that the Bethlehem Company was not able to furnish all the armor needed, and so the Government persuaded the Carnegie Company to go into the armor-plate business. The Carnegie people were promised an equal share of the work, and the same prices as the Bethlehem Company. Matters went on peacefully until July 10th of last year, when Congress directed the Secretary of the Navy to inquire into the cost of making armor-plate, and to give an idea of the price he thought the Government ought to pay for it. The result of his inquiries was to be made known on January 1st of this year.