SYDNEY DESIGN FOR BODY ARMOUR

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25022, 2 November 1946, Page 7

SYDNEY DESIGN FOR BODY ARMOUR

PROTECTION AGAINST GUNMEN (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 2. Mr Reginald Welch, a Sydney engineer, wears a suit of armour under his clothes when he walks round the city streets, as a safeguard against underworld gunmen. The suit is a modern version, without the headpiece, of the armour worn by Australia’s most notorious bushranger, Ned Kelly. Mr Welch tried to sell his idea to the Police Department, claiming that, if worn, the suit would have saved the life of Detective V. Ahearn, who was shot dead while escorting two prisoners the previous week. He says that he has made armour vests for city bank messengers and pay-roll clerks. The vests consist of a number of specially toughened light steel plates, sewn inside a fabric cover. One plate weighing sjib covers the front of the body, the side, shoulders and kidneys and the lower part of the back. A heavier type weighing 111 b, covers the front of the body, the shoulders, sides, and all the back down to the hips. Mr Welch says it is impossible for bullets from revolvers, pistols, or tom-my-guns to penetrate the steel, no matter how short the range at which they are fired.. He gave a demonstration. Bullets from a .45 pistol of the . type used by Sydney thugs were squashed flat by the impact with the 1 steel. Sub-machine-gun bullets were ' flattened. Mr Welch said other tests had been made with a German Luger 1 .38, a Thompson .45. the Owen 9-milli-metre. and with Mills bombs and tank- . buster bombs, without effect. Omy high velocity bullets, such as those I from a .303 rifle or a Vickers or Bren machine-gun would penetrate.