Editing Protected cruiser (section)

==Eclipse of the type==
By 1910, metallurgical advances had led to lighter and stronger steel armour, and lighter, more powerful [[steam turbine]]s had displaced reciprocating [[steam engine]]s in general use. This gave rise to a new class of cruising warship, the "[[light armoured cruiser]]", which featured a side armoured belt (topped by a flat armoured deck) amidships and sloped armoured decks at the ends, instead of the single full-length curved deck of the older ships. With the introduction of [[Fuel oil|oil-fired]] boilers, more effective at generating a constant steam pressure optimal to turbine engines, side bunkers of coal disappeared from ships, and with them their protection, making the shift to side armour a practical choice.

The majority of pre-existing protected cruisers – products of the Victorian-era design generation – had become obsolete: their old and worn engines were degrading their already-eclipsed performance; their older models of lower-velocity guns were inferior in distance to newer equivalent ships in a period where long-range guns and fire control were rapidly-developing; and, most critically, their protection was inferior to the new generation of side-armoured ships. From this point on, practically no more protected cruisers would be built for the world's navies.