The journey of body armours from metal shields to bullet-proof Kevlar jackets
A knight in shining armour is a common phrase that most of you have heard of, right? Also, periodic movies have acquainted you with kings and warriors defending themselves in the battlefield with their protective body armour. This gear has been in use among soldiers during combats since centuries. But what was the first ever body armour like? How did it evolve into the modern bullet-proof Kevlar vests?
The early body armours: A bird’s eye view
In the early days, body armours (both protective clothing and shield) were made from animal skins. With the advancement of civilisation came wooden and metal shields. Eventually, during the Middle Ages, it was the Japanese warriors on whose efforts the first suit of armour was made of a cotton inside and steel exterior. Such suits were often worn by all kinds of medieval knights and acted as perfect protective gears from the wounds of sharp weapons. However, with the advent of the 16th century, firearms were born. This is when metal body armours slowly became ineffective and humans realised that they needed sturdier protections. So, they started looking for effective options.
Advent of bullet-proof vests
Until the late 19th century, not many viable options were produced. The Europeans did come up with metal helmets to secure the head from bullets and even made a particular body armour called musket-proof cuirass that covered the torso region and was made up of two layers of leather, the outer layer designed to absorb the energy and the thicker inner layer to stop further penetration. This soft body armour (as it was also called) proved to be effective against low-velocity bullets (those travelling at 400 feet per second or less). But soon, new generation of handguns came into being. Their bullets travelled with a velocity of over 600 feet per second. This is when the soft body armour concept also became obsolete.
Fast forward to 1919 and USA came up with the first ever bullet-proof vests. They were made up of three layers: The innermost layer was made of cotton or silk, the middle layer was made of metal and the outer layer was made of leather. The first batch of these vests was sent to Washing D.C.’s Metropolitan Police for experiment and was developed by the US National Institute of Justice Research Department during World War I. It proved to be quite useful during local gun fights.
However, these jackets too were replaced soon with a more robust anti-ballistic ‘flak jacket’ during the World War II. They weren’t anything the world had ever seen before and were created by the German scientist Wilkinson Sword from ballistic nylon. But there was a problem. They were too bulky.
The world welcomes Kevlar jackets
Throughout the mid-20th century, the world kept experimenting to find the lighter yet sturdier version of flak jackets. However, it was not until the 1970s that a Polish-American chemist named Stephanie Kwolek accidentally ended up inventing Kevlar. She was working for a DuPont manufacturing company and looking for strong but lightweight plastics (as a substitute of steel belting) to use in car tyres. But instead, she ended up discovering what is today known as Kevlar, the bullet-proof synthetic fibre that has ever since saved countless lives. Known for its strong, heat-resistant quality, it could even prevent cutting-edge lead bullets coming out of advanced ammunition having varying speeds and calibres of bullets including 38 Special (a police revolver) and 22 Long Rifle. By 1973, a seven-layered Kevlar jacket was developed, that proved to be the ultimate object to revolutionise modern-day defence system.