Editing Light cruiser (section)

==Origins and development==
[[File:HMS Mercury (1878).jpg|thumb|right|[[HMS Mercury|HMS ''Mercury'']]]]

The first small steam-powered cruisers were built for the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Royal Navy]] with [[HMS Mercury (1878)|HMS ''Mercury'']] launched in 1878.<ref>{{cite book
  | first = John
  | last = Beeler
  | title = Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design 1870–1881
  | publisher = Naval Institute Press
  | year = 2001
  | pages = 40
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BxZ61ZF4Ea8C&pg=PA40| isbn = 1-55750-213-7}}</ref> Such second and third class protected cruisers evolved, gradually becoming faster, better armed and better protected. Germany took a lead in small cruiser design in the 1890s, building a class of fast cruisers—the {{sclass|Gazelle|cruiser|4}}—copied by other nations. Such vessels were powered by coal-fired boilers and [[steam engine|reciprocating steam engines]] and relied in part on the arrangement of coal bunkers for their protection. The adoption of oil-fired [[water-tube boiler]]s and [[steam turbine]] engines meant that older small cruisers rapidly became obsolete. Furthermore, new construction could not rely on the protection of coal bunkers and would therefore have to adopt some form of side armoring. The British ''Chatham'' group of {{sclass2|Town|cruiser (1910)|0}} cruisers were a departure from previous designs; with turbine propulsion, mixed coal and oil firing and a 2-inch protective armored belt as well as deck. Thus, by definition, they were armored cruisers, despite displacing only 4,800&nbsp;tons; the light armored cruiser had arrived. The first true modern light cruisers were the {{sclass|Arethusa|cruiser (1913)|4}} which had all oil-firing and used lightweight [[destroyer]]-type machinery to make {{convert|29|kn|km/h|0}}.