improved spot-prov Armour.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 10th July, 1899 Accepted, '2th Aug., 1899
improved spot-prov Armour.
I, HERMANN THEIS, of No. 5, Markt Strasse, Ohligs, in the Empire of Germany,
Works Manager, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and' ascertained
in and by the following statement:—
In the development of offensive and defensive armaments the fact is obvious
that with the improvement in weapons of offence ways and means have been
found of constructing defensive apparatuses in such a manner that they are
capable of resistance proportionately to the penetrating power of the shot. The
endeavour to make defensive armour so strong that they successfully offer the
greatest resistance to the force of the shot is most clearly shewn in the history
of modern armoured' defence.
For some time armour has been made which forms a great advance in the
improvements in means of protection. From the original wrought iron plates
laid over each other we have progressed to homogeneously united composite
armour plates of wrought iron, hardened steel, nickel steel facing. But the
efforts with all this armour have been to produce a homogeneous mass the material
of which was essentially steel and wrought iron and was designed to prevent
projectiles penetrating through the armour plates. It was especially endeavoured
to cause the shot to explode upon the hardened surface and thereby render_it
harmless, because experience shewed that when the shell penetrated the plate the
action of the explosive substance contained in the shell would destroy the armour.
The deeper the shot penetrated into the plate the more the armour protection
would be endangered.
The development of modern armour shows by experience that defensive means
cannot go beyond certain limits. The reasons for this are too long to be ex-
plained here, and it need only be mentioned that the iron industry has had to
be slowly and progressively developed in order to cope with the requirements
of defensive armaments. Artillery is in a more favourable position inasmuch
as the penetration of the projectiles has been already considerably increased by
means of the more efficient smokeless powder.
It follows from this that the limit of the efficiency of armour is closely
dependent on the development of the iron industry, and it has been made the
subject of much experiment lately to replace the hitherto customary use of
steel and iron for armouring by some other material: It can however be stated
without exaggeration that no homogeneous material exists or can be made
which surpasses iron or steel plates in resisting power. All efforts to replace
these by homogeneous or other manufactured material have hitherto failed.
The object of the present invention has been produced on a fundamentally
different principle. The inventor has laid down three principles which are
entirely contrary to all armour known up to now, namely:.
1. The substance is not homogeneous but is composed of parts of different
degrees of resistance to the action of projectiles.

page_text: 2. The shot is to penetrate into the substance and be retained therein.
3. The energy in the shot is at the same time to be cause of the destruction
of the projectile itself.
These principles have been realised by the inventor by the manufacture of
a substance which actually affords the desired protection against projectiles.
The inventor has primarily endeavoured in the new shot proof substance to
counteract the effect of the modern infantry rifles of the newest construction
and this object has been attained in a surprising manner with the help of the
bullet proof substance described below, the steel cased bullet of the modern
infantry rifle which has been propelled by the largest possible charge of powder,
is in the substance itself burst into small pieces and firmly held there. This
hitherto unheard of result has been attained by careful observation and experi-
ment.
i
It has been discovered, namely, that if a projectile penetrates into a substance
composed of various heterogenous parts in which each separate part of the
substance possesses a different degree of resistance to the penetration of the
projectile and in which a portion of the mass possesses a relatively high resisting
power the penetrating projectile is destroyed and torn by means of the energy
and the force of rotation innate in the projectile. This discovery led to the
invention of the bullet-proof material,
An example of this bullet proof substance is illustrated in the accompanying
drawing in section in which a denotes fine steel blades about 0.6 millimetres thick
and 30 millimetres wide. The strips b are of woven material which are soaked
in rubber solution and firmly joined to the steel blades under hydraulic pressure.
As can be plainly seen from the drawing, the steel blades do not penetrate
through the whole section of the substance but only as far as the centre of
the whole material. By this arrangement of the blades, the steel blades and
the strips of material so follow on each other that at least three steel blades
necupy a space which corresponds to the thickness of a projectile.
arrangement is especially calculated for infantry bullets for which this con-
struction has been primarily designed:
The method of operation of this substance so constructed is as follows:-
This
The projectile penetrates into the substance, finds a different resistance in
the steel blades as compared with that of the strips of woven material. The
striking of the projectile against the few (two or three) sharp edges of the
steel blades causes its shape to be altered and by means of its own rotary motion
and the energy of the projectile it is completely destroyed. It is divided into
pieces and small particles which are driven into the backing of the substance,
as according to experiment the projectile penetrates into the substance half the
width of the steel blades before it is destroyed completely.
That part of the substance, which, as shewn in the drawing, merely consists
of strips of woven material is only intended to receive the burst particles of
the bullet. This part of the substance which is to serve as a protection against
the particles of the burst projectile can obviously be replaced by another con-
struction. For example, it can be a strong steel plate of 1 to 1 millimetres
which would serve as the backing of the target. (Figure 2).
This above described method of operation of the bullet proof substance has
been tested by careful experiments in which the latest military infantry rifle with
the largest charge of powder was employed and in which the bullet was shot at
10 metres distance from the target.
What has been said above with regard to the bullet proof substance and also
the drawings, relates to a plate which has been tested against the action of
infantry rifles. The principle on which the plate has been manufactured can
naturally, in principle, be used for armour-plating in general. Certainly in
the manufacture of this kind of armour plates the bullet proof substance can be
practically employed.
Through the successful operation of this new construction of armour plating

page_text: it is obvious that the present invention is of the greatest possible importance
for the construction of defensive armaments.
There is still a special form of construction which perhaps might be used for
heavy armour, for instance armour plates in war vessels, in breast-works for
coast defences and the like.. The inserted steel blades corresponding to the
size and power of penetration of large projectiles of heavy artillery are con-
structed of steel bars of considerable thickness and these are strongly connected
to each other at the back by means of a cross beam (see Figure 3). It is
advisable to entirely dispense with the intermediate strips between the steel
blades which as above described consisted of woven material and not to fill up
these spaces with substances of any kind.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1). Bullet proof substance characterised by arranging materials of various
degrees of resistance to projectiles in such a position that the penetrating
projectile is burst by means of its own energy, breaks into pieces, and is
retained in the said substance.
2). In the bullet-proof substance characterised in Claim 1 the arrangement
that the intermediate strips of less resisting material are dispensed with,
substantially as and for the purpose described.
L
1
AT 1
1000
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
322, High Holborn, London, W.C., Patent Agents for the Applicant.