An armour-plate factory has been established at Kobé, but it is not yet
in a position to turn out much except gun shields.
A characteristic of the Japanese has been their readiness to adopt new
processes.
Thus the Fuji and Yashima were designed for compound armour, but the
Harvey process coming in while the ships were building, it was at once
adopted in preference to compound. So, too, in later ships the improved
Harvey, “Harvey-Nickel,” was at once used, and in the Iwate and Idzumo
belts were shortened a little and speed reduced, so that the Krupp
process might be employed for the water-line plates.
In the Mikasa great expense was undertaken solely in order to apply
Krupp cemented to curved surfaces instead of the non-cemented and less
tough Krupp plates usually so employed. There is some doubt whether
this experiment was successful; if Krupp cemented plates are “fiddled
with” their special virtue departs. It is also stated, however, that
the Mikasa’s plates were made on a special process somewhat analogous
to the Krupp, but differing from it in certain details, and less liable
to injury in bending.