Why didn't bulletproof world become fashionable during the

Meant to say bulletproof shields, not world...

>>2879142
metal is better spent elsewhere

>>2879154
Superior firepower beats defence, basicly?

>>2879137

So just some quick napkin math.

Take the armor thickness of the Mk1 tank, which was 12mm. This armor could be pierced by large caliber rifles, and was only resistant to 7.92 ball, but it's a good starting point.

A slab of steel 12mm thick x 2 meter wide (1 m at the front, half meter bent backwards to protect the sides) x 1.5m (a crouching man) weighs about 290 kilos. Now how are you doing to drag that thing across no-man's land?

Then consider that the enemy can punch clean through this armor with steel-core armor piercing ammo from a .308 equivalent fired out of any infantry rifle. To provide protection against AP ammo, you have to slightly more than double the thickness of the shield on the front, which brings the weight up to 440 kilos.

Infantrymen would rather die than lug that shit around.

>>2879137
Too expensive. That's like saying why didn't they use bolt-action rifles as soon as they were invented.

>>2879137
Because lots of little targets are harder to hit then several big ones. You don't want to be infintry mate, your job is to be bullet sponges and Zerg rush

>>2879203
Man, /thread.

>>2879203
Did muskets use AP ammo?

>We shoot the enemy

Our bullets are ineffective.

>We charge the enemy.

We just tip them over and defeat a whole regiment.

>>2879203
>slab of steel 12mm thick x 2 meter wide weighs about 290 kilos.
Seriously? I find that hard to believe

>>2879414
Density of steel 8,000kg/cubic meter
0.012m*2m*1.5m*8000kg/cubic meter = 288kg

>>2879203
>A slab of steel 12mm thick x 2 meter wide (1 m at the front, half meter bent backwards to protect the sides) x 1.5m (a crouching man) weighs about 290 kilos
Nah this is bullshit.

A 10x10 CM square of steel 1CM thick, only weighs 0.79 Kilograms. Take 10 of these 10x10x1cm squares of steel to make bodyarmour and you have 7.9 KG body armour capable of stopping most musket rounds.

The "Steel bibs" a solid plate of steel covering the upper torso in WW2 only weighed around 4kg and could stop quite a few modern rounds.

These in Napoleonic times would have made a large difference, the reason they didnt get made is clearly cost and not weight.

>>2879137
They hadn't invented the Bessemer Process yet, anon. Steel was extremely expensive to make prior to the second half of the 19th century. At the same time, cheap military conscription was replacing the pricey mercenaries and military aristocracy of the renaissance era. Ultimately, the life of an average 18th and 19th century infantryman wasn't worth the cost of armor that could stop bullets.

By the time that it became cheap enough to mass produce bulletproof shields or armor, artillery had become powerful enough that armor wasn't going to do much good.

>>2879432

The "Steel bib" used by the Soviets only protected against 9x19 parabellum. That round has about 500 joules of KE.

A Springfield 1861 has about triple the muzzle energy of a 9x19, and would shoot through that steel armor with ease.

>>2879384
>Did muskets use AP ammo?
Sometimes. They could be loaded with steel or iron bullets instead of lead, or they could be iron or steel coated in lead.

>>2879203
>Now how are you doing to drag that thing across no-man's land?
Wheels. Maybe pulleys and treads.

>>2881473
The shield might get in the way of your own guns. Maybe there should be a gun on top of the shield?

File: wwi_armor.jpg (187KB, 1200x897px) Image search: [Google]

187KB, 1200x897px

>>2879203
>>2881473

Yeah, actually
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_personnel_shield

But there was also plate armor built and worn in WWI. It sucked, because scholars at the time believed plate armor had always sucked and didn't know how to make any that didn't.

>>2879427
>>2879432
"Steel" is a group for multiple carbon-ferrum alloys. Implying that steel has a specific density is ridiculous. What kind of steel are you talking about? Hot/cold rolled/cast, what alloy, and you really need to know the carbon percentage. I hate it when people think steel is a specific type of metal.

>>2881535
You dont need to be talking about any specific type, no type of steel is 300 fucking KG for a 2 meter sheet

>>2881536
sure but anything above 50kg is very fucking heavy. A 2 meter sheet should weigh about 160kg on average for the steels they had in that era.