# If bulletproof armor had existed 400 years ago... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 12, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857 "2006-12-12T19:40:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857/21 "2006-12-13T13:48:00Z")
A recent attempt to use silk in bulletproof armor. > **[A Priest's Early Quest to Create a Bulletproof Vest](https://www.npr.org/2005/04/30/4625858/a-priests-early-quest-to-create-a-bulletproof-vest)** > > In 1893, the mayor of Chicago was shot and killed in his home. That murder inspired a local priest, Brother Casimir Zeglen, to invent an early bulletproof vest. Historian Paul Collins rediscovered the forgotten inventor and tells Scott Simon the... ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857/22 "2006-12-13T16:40:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Kevlar bullets? I’ve never heard of these, and a Google search only returns sites for role playing games. Any more information? No, I created a fictional product to underscore the point that someone would have found a way around the problem impervious knights. > [@](#): > > Kevlar isn’t impervious to any military grade standard ammo. A high velocity rifle round will go straight through any usable thickness of Kevalr like a knife through butter. That’s as true of an M1 Garand round as a round from an Armalite M16. Action movies to the contrary Kevalar will only stop ricochets, shrapnel, handgun ammo and high velocity rounds at extreme range. Shoot some with any post 1900 military round at less than 100 metres and it will go right through. > > Some top-of-the-line armour incorporates ceramic or metal plates in addition to Kevlar and these will stop a glancing hit from a rifle, but even here a direct hit at close range will go straight through. Thanks! I wiki’ed Kevlar yesterday: [Interceptor multi-threat body armor system - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_body_armor) But I wasn’t sure if this stuff blocked standard ammo or not, so I hedged my bets. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857/23 "2006-12-15T04:19:44Z")
Do let’s remember that, even as recently as the Great War, and to a proportionately greater extent the further back one goes, the lion’s share of war casualties were due to disease and/or hunger. Gear capable of resisting high-velocity mullets (sorry, couldn’t resist) would have changed battle tactics some, but presumably both sides would have had them, so maybe not much difference in outcomes. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857/24 "2006-12-17T18:47:07Z")
[QUOTE=PBear42] Gear capable of resisting high-velocity mullets (sorry, couldn’t resist) would have changed battle tactics some, but presumably both sides would have had them, so maybe not much difference in outcomes. [/QUOTE] You beat me to both the mullets and the small difference in tactics. Damn you! 😃 My interpretation would be that since it’s still perfectly possible to maim/kill people even if torso hits are defended against, there would probably have been a greater emphasis on lower-energy volume fire to score disabling peripheral hits (heavy buckshot, perhaps), and an even greater focus on artillery (I’d like to see the personal armour that could stop grapeshot). So even with perfectly impenetrable body armour, the average soldier would still have marched into battle expecting a bloody and painful death. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857/25 "2006-12-17T23:20:07Z")
After gunpowder was no longer an innovation hasn’t most of the killing in wars been by artillery?so Kevlar wouldn’t have changed things much. I have no cite but I was told that a round from a Colt 45 of theWild West era could be stopped by hanging up wet blankets over a range of 10 feet. If correct I’m guessing heavy round ,short barrel(so short rifling ,not much spin)less efficient powder,less gas efficient chamber but as I say I’m guessing ,Inever watch weapons programmes on “The Discovery” channel Or of course I could have said all of the previous so you wouldn’t think that the security forces had got in and "jarked"the weapons before the bad guys got their hands on them . Only joking !my sense of humour will be the death of me LOL! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bulletproof-armor-had-existed-400-years-ago/383857.md?page=1)