BULLET PROOF ARMOUR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 213, 2 September 1908, Page 4

BULLET PROOF ARMOUR

A SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY. A very sensational discovery is reported from" France. In a recent number of .La France Jlilitaire, under the heading of "New Cavalry Cuirasses," it is announced that tlie inoveiuent in favour of abolishing the lingering remnant of aviiiiour still in use ill modern armies lias received a sudden, check by the discovery of an unnamed inventor whose , ingenuity promises to restore armour I to the place which it formerly occupied' .in .warfare. Every schoolboy knows, to .borrow Macaulay's familiar jest, tli.it' the practice of arraying lighting men in coats of armour, which had culminated in the lifteentb century by covering lmi.li horse and rider with armour, received what was believed to be its death-blow .by the introduction of gunpowder. Coals of mail which turned arrows were easily pierced by musket balls, and although the practice of covering the breast with iron plates lingered through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was •recognised as an anachronism by all .military authorities. At present the | .showy cuirass which lingers in the British army is .purely'spectacular, a showy ingredient of the circus side of warfare. .Soldiers constantly assert that cuirasses .will never be used again in actual lighting. . They weigh 71b. or 81b., they cost . V> or iii, and lliev are not even proof against a revolver bullet, wb.,c, as against modern lilies, they niigni as well be mdae of brown paper. Hence, as La France Militaire tells us, tlu'Vf •was a strong movement in the Frenclf army in favour of abolishing cuirasses both, for cuirassiers and dragoons, lint lieneral de Uallitel offered strong resistance to this revolutionary reform, and the cuirass was saved, it is doubtful whether even (leneral de C.allif.-i would have been able to arrest I lie abolition of the cuirass had it not been for the discovery referred to. This was a discovery rather than an invention. Although its precise nature is still buried in mystery, enough is known to give rise to vciv interesting speculations as to whether, instead of getting rid of armour altogether, we are not destined in the next few years to see the reappearance of mail-clad men in the ranl.s of war. The French Covernnicnt has for some months past been making an exhaustive series of experiments as lo the value of the new Composition, and it is interesting to hear they have practically decided that the inventor has made good liis claims, and that in the warfare of the future, this new kind of armour is destined to play a very important part. This is not surprising, if Ihe claims of the inventor are really riibstantiated. It is asserted that the ii.'.v material possesses.four or live times as nmeli resistance as chilled steel; thai it is practically invulneral)lc.,to rille. btil.lels; that it does not weigh any more than the existing cuirass; Unit it can be manufactured at half the price, au.l even if it should be pierced it can be made as good as new almost without any expenditure, of lime, or mater.at. Such assertions, incredible as Ihcy may appear, there is reason to believe are well within the facts.