Armor
Armor is a protection in battle. Through the centuries, such materials as animal skins, bronze, and steel have been used to make armor. Until the invention of firearms, armor was extremely effective. Today, members of the military and Police wear armor. It is also used on ships, tanks, and other military vehicles.
Early armor
Primitive people wore layers of animal hides to protect them from blows. The Assyrians and people of other early civilizations carried shields and wore helmets and body armor made of leather strengthened with bronze. The Greeks and the Romans wore helmets, cuirasses (short body armor), and greaves (leg armor), and they carried large shields. Greek and Roman armor was constructed mainly of bronze or steel, and it served as protection against arrows, spears, and swords.
Middle Ages
During the middle Ages, the use of armor reached its peak. During the 1200's, chain mail (tiny rings of metal linked together) served as the major form of protection. Suits of chain mail covered a knight's body from head to foot and provided protection against arrows, lances, and swords. Chain mail was very hard to make. Imagine linking thousands of paper clips together. The crusaders and many other knights also wore metal helmets that covered the face.
By the 1300's, foot soldiers fought with weapons as crossbows, longbows, maces, and axes. Arrows fired from a longbow or crossbow could pierce chain mail, and blows from an axe or a mace would crush it. As a result, armorers (armor makers) began to make plate armor consisting of large pieces of steel. By the 1400's, suits of plate armor were designed to cover the entire body. Helmets, gauntlets (gloves), and shoes—all of steel—completed the outfit. Horses wore armor as well. Plate armor was highly effective, but it was extremely heavy and hot to wear. A suit of armor was also expensive, costing as much as a small farm.
Armorers were highly skilled craftsmen. Their job was to preserve lives, particularly those of leaders. After armor became a safe defense, armorers concentrated on decorating armor for tournaments and parades. Gothic armor produced in northern Italy and southern Germany became especially well known for its gracefulness and elegance. German Maximilian armor of the early 1500's was fluted (grooved) to give it extra strength and a glancing surface. By the mid-1500's, armor was etched or engraved with designs or scenes, and was often gilded or silvered.
Guns changed the ways of waging war and therefore the protection needed. Armor, made ever thicker and heavier to be bulletproof, became too heavy to wear. By the mid-1600's, only helmets and breastplates continued to be used.