As I understand it the matter of Whitworth Steel being "Compressed" was not for the purpose of increasing its strength, just to assure it was free of voids. It was in effect thus simply a low carbon steel which would explain why the 3 band English Laminated steel beat it in the trials.
Possibly not the best comparison. As per Dr. Wood's analysis of the Birmingham Proof Trials, the results were skewed in favor of the Laminated tubes. One of the three Laminated samples took an inordinately large amount of pressure before failing, whereas the other two Laminated samples failed around where you'd expect pattern welded tubes to fail, around the 50,000psi range. Perhaps Joe will give a better explanation when he sees this.
A little more light may eventually be shed on the Laminated issue, as I'm sending a 2-iron Laminated section to DocDrew for testing in his next shipment.
