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Who Invented Bullet Proof Vests?

Bulletproof vests are one of Hollywood’s favourite action movie plot devices. Easily concealable and seemingly impervious to all weapons, they provide writers with a handy eleventh-hour means of saving their characters from certain death. But how can such a relatively thin and flimsy piece of fabric stop a speeding bullet, and are real-life bulletproof vests really as impenetrable as in the movies? Well, lock and load as we dive into the fascinating - and dangerous - history of ballistic body armour and the incredible modern day seemingly otherwise fabric suits that are made to stop bullets. The widespread adoption of practical firearms in the 15th century led to the rapid decline in the use of traditional plate armour. While a medieval suit of armour could protect its wearer against swords, pikes, maces and other kinds of melée weapons - as well as certain kinds of arrows - all but the heaviest and most expensive suits were mostly useless against musketball. Armies thus began to abandon armour in favour of more lightly-equipped, mobile troops, with certain pieces such as breastplates and helmets being retained by officers as specialized troops like heavy cavalry. For example, during the English Civil War of 1642-1651, the Ironside cavalry of Parliamentarian or “Roundhead” leader Oliver Cromwell wore musket-proof breastplates or cuirasses composed of two layers of armour: an inner layer that absorbed most of the bullet’s energy, and an inner layer that prevented it from penetrating. This two-layer design would later be used in many soft ballistic armour systems. By the 18th Century, however, firearms had become powerful enough to penetrate even these defences, and plate armour was largely relegated to a ceremonial role. For example, the gorget, a piece of armour which originally protected the throat, was shrunk down to a non-functional size and worn on the chest by officers and military policemen as a badge of rank. Ornamental breastplates - often highly polished and decorated - were also worn by officers, aristocrats, and members of elite military units like Cuirassiers. Incredibly, this tradition persisted into the 20th Century, with French Cuirassiers wearing their Napoleonic-era breastplates and helmets into battle during the first weeks of the First World War. But for the most part, plate armour largely disappeared from the battlefield for more than 200 years. The thickness - and consequently the weight - of steel plates needed to stop modern firearms projectiles was simply too great to be practical. However, several inventors discovered an unexpected material that proved unusually resistant to gunfire: silk. In Japan, for example, where firearms had been introduced in 1543 by Portuguese traders, armour makers discovered that multiple layers of tightly-woven silk quilted together was enough to dissipate the energy of a musket ball and stop it from penetrating. Combined with steel plates, this material was used to construct a new type of armour called tosei-gusoku or “bullet tested.” However, these suits were expensive to produce, and reserved only for the wealthiest samurai. This is an abridged version of a video on our channel TodayIFoundOut which you can check out and subscribe to here:    / @todayifoundout