At first hearing the name, few people can imagine the formidable power of paper armor in ancient times, even stopping swords and pistols when fighting.
When picturing ancient war, many people think of burly warriors wearing armor made from pieces of iron or steel. But according to ancient Chinese records, using paper armor is sometimes a good choice.
Few people know that ancient craftsmen in China invented paper armor, an invention that has never been used in the West. This type of armor was used around 600 BC.
Despite its “fragile” appearance, the paper armor shows great ability in combat. To create this strange armor, it would be remiss not to mention the ancient invention of paper in China.
Paper armor was used in China around 600 BC. (Photo: Discovery)
Specifically, while Greco-Roman civilization was thriving in the West, the ancient Chinese developed paper, weapons, astronomy, mathematics, and advanced metallurgy on their own. complexity at a level equal to or sometimes even superior to that of the Mediterranean region.
As we all know, China is the place where paper was invented. Legend has it that around the year 105, a eunuch named Thai Luan was said to be the first person to create paper from mulberry fibers.
Pieces of paper made from hemp during the Han Dynasty.
However, researchers have also recently found evidence that hemp paper may have been invented earlier, around 100 BC. After that, with outstanding advantages such as low cost and lightness, writing paper gradually replaced materials to store documents such as bamboo cards, turtle shells and silk. In addition to the obvious uses, the ancient Chinese even used this material to make armor.
Historically, the Chinese have demonstrated an impressive ability to protect soldiers with a variety of materials ranging from tortoiseshell, bronze, stone, leather and even steel. Steel is skillfully crafted into small squares, rectangles and fish scales for ultimate protection in war. What is surprising, however, are the ancient records of silk and paper armor.
According to Greg Martin, an expert on ancient armor, shared in the program MythBusters that the ancient Chinese used armor made of paper as early as 600 BC.
In particular, these paper armors are impregnated with turpentine or some other tree resin. Mr. Martin said that paper armor was considered superior to metal armor at the time.
Interestingly, paper armor even existed before the advent of writing paper. They really became the belongings of ancient soldiers when they went to war.
Crafted from 10-15 layers of paper made from mulberry bark, the paper armor is even said to be able to block arrows.
To test the potential of paper armor, the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters program conducted a test to test its durability, comparing the strength and flexibility of this armor with that of paper armor. Steel was used at the same time in China’s history.
To test their strength, the Mythbusters team created both types of paper armor, one of which was impregnated with turpentine and the other was not. The paper used to make the armor was about 13mm thick.
The experts then tried to use a variety of weapons to attack the paper armor, including swords, 18th-century pistols, and the 19th-century revolver 0.45.
However, paper armor also has certain limitations in resisting barrage of attacks and proves “weaker” than the impact of the revolver of the 19th century.
However, in general, armor made of paper also proved that its ability was not inferior to armor made of steel. Therefore, scientists have made a statement that it is possible for the ancient Chinese to use paper armor to fight.
Has great strength, but the paper spear has the “fatal” disadvantage that it is very easy to disintegrate when wet.
This shows that, besides metal and leather, ancient craftsmen knew how to use many other materials to invent body armor.
However, a “fatal” drawback of paper armor is that they can quickly disintegrate when wet or subjected to multiple attacks .
This is a limitation associated with the advantage of possessing the light weight of paper armor.
Even so, the invention of armor using available materials, with abilities even surpassing metal armor, really made our posterity admire.