In 1881, Dr George Emery Goodfellow accidentally discovered that silk could stop bullets from penetrating the skin. He eventually developed a Gambeson that used silk folded thirty times to successfully protect the human body from bullets.
Other deigns that used silk as the medium were brought about before the start of World War I. After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, who was wearing a silk protective vest during his assassination, scientists began testing other materials. Eventually leading to the use of Kevlar during the 70s and that has remained as the primary material of which bullet proof vets are made of. That is until 2002 when scientists found out that Dragline silk is three times stronger than Kevlar.
I did not know silk was used to create bulletproof material. Interesting silk was used for so long before a new material was discovered. I would imagine that as the advancements in ballistic technology developed the need for better bulletproofing material also needed to advance. Other than the military use of bulletproof vest, there are many other uses that have made an impact on society such as police protection, bomb disposal units, and personal protection. Protecting our military and law enforcement agencies has only added a level of protection for all of society.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, I've never really ever thought of the material or even what allows a bullet proof vest to be, well, bullet proof. The design, or art, of the vest is impressive. I did a bit of my own research on it because suddenly I'm a bit fascinated and intrigued by it. This is a bit of what I found out:
ReplyDeleteBecause the fibers work together both in the individual layer and with other layers of material in the vest, a large area of the garment becomes involved in preventing the bullet from penetrating. This also helps in dissipating the forces which can cause nonpenetrating injuries (what is commonly referred to as "blunt trauma") to internal organs (About.com).
And that's just the tip of the iceburg as far as bulletproof vests go. Science never ceases to amaze me watching how far technology has come. It just keeps increasing every time we move to another year. Society expects it, so we move towards it. The design behind the vest is truly a wonder even of itself.
-Brittney
Work Cited: About. "A History of Body Armor - Bullet Proof Vests." Inventors. About.com. 21 June 2009 (btw, it won't let me post the HTML so just go to About.com and look up the article)
This is very interesting. I've never really thought about what made bullet proof vests bullet proof I just figured there was something hard enough to stop bullet. I didn't know that it was something as simple as silk.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Dr. Goodfellow discovered that silk would actually protect a person from bullets. Did he test it on people to find this out? And if something as simple as silk can protect a person from a bullet what other simple concepts are we missing.
I have to agree with all of you. Silk for Bulletproof?????? WoW, that's a first. Something as simple could be used to actually ave someone's life that is very fascinating indeed. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_vest and its history, with a breif timeline of how the silk really was that important in the early years. I love how we're getting the best of technology through out this class!
ReplyDeleteThis post really surprised me when I read it. I couldn’t image a silk or a fabric being bulletproof. I thought that Ferdinand’s death was evidence that the vest he wore was ineffective, but just read that he was shot in the neck above the vest.
ReplyDeleteI checked further and learned that dragline silk was what a spider used to spin their webs and that it is actually stronger than Kevlar and that scientists are studying spiders in materials research. Great post!
I had no idea that silk was impermeable to bullets. I find it amazing that such delicate material can be so withstanding. Not that I want to try it, but i wonder if the silk manufactured today would be able to stop a bullet also manufactured at today's standards? Just one question...how did silk lead to Kevlar? I don't know anything about that material, so I'm wondering if they are of similar origins?
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