UNKILLABLE

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 10

UNKILLABLE

MAN WHO GETS SHOT BUT DOES NOT DIE AMAZING AMERICAN INVENTION. It sounds impossible, of course; slightly mud in fact. But it is true nevertheless. The secret is an absolutely bullet-proof waistcoat, and the wonderful invention was described in a recent Issue of the ‘ Science Magazine.’

The other day (says the writer) 1 saw Anders Jacobson get “ shot while i looked on. Jacobson makes i profession of demonstrating the bullet proof vest invented by John J. de Boves. Tile muzzle of a large and dangerous German Manser, firing i long, pointed, terrifying bullet, was put within an inch of Jacobson’? heart. Then—BANG!—a report that nearly split my cars. The expression of Ander’s face never changed. The ash remained undisturbed at the end of his cigarette. ‘ With my eyes shut, I couldn’t have told on which side I was shot,’’ he said

[ thrust a finger into the hole made in the gray covering of (lie vest, and touched the bullet. It was hot. Do Boves pulled Die bullet out. It had flattened, and inn now about’an inch across.

Do Boves explained his invention. It consists of metal plates about as thick as safety razor blades. Instead of resisting the bullet’s force, they distributed it swiftly around and through the man. The bullet hasn't time to puncture the thin steel plates, for its force is dissipated too quickly. Strangely enough, if the vest were put on a wooden figure, the bullet would go right through. If yon shoot the vest when no one has it on, the same thing will happen, It takes a soft backing, preferably that offered by a human body, to make sure of furnishing the “vibratory leak” upon which the success of the contrivance depends. “During the Avar,” said de Boves, “ I Avas distressed by the terrible slaughter, and tried to find a principle on Avhich to base some kind of defensive armor. One after another, I tried all the known principles. None was of any use. I had to find a ne\A f principle, and after tAvo years of failure I succeeded. Though the war was over by that time, the crime wave set in, making the bullet-proof vest a, blessing. Bandits aim at the trunk. If that is protected, police officers can laugh at bandits.” I asked de Boves how he discovered a man brave enough to ho the first to put on the vest and got shot. “ We advertised for a man not afraid of a dangerous job, and in came Anders. Ho had been a steeplejack. But Avlien avo told him that lie Avonld have to get shot twice a day lie look one look at the a-os! and exclaimed, 'Not mo! ’

“However, he. put on the vest. I. got out the. big Mauser pistol. ‘Not me!’ he said again. ‘You won’t mind it,’ 1 protested ‘The only bother is the noise. Suppose 1 use a blank cartridge, and sec if yon can stand the noise.’ lie consented, but the cartridge I used was not blank. “ I fired. He didn’t know lie had been shot. ‘ You’ll find the bullet in the vest,’ I said. He took the bullet out, hot and flattened. Ho has been demnnstraiing for ns ever since.” From de Boves’s partner 1 learned that Jacobson was not the first to put on the bullet-proof vest and get shot. De Roves himself was.

The article goes on to describe former inventions of armored cars of various types made by do Roves, and continues to say that the do Roves ears do not yield so many stories as does the vest. On February 23, 192.3, John Hall, town marshal of Martins Junction, Kentucky, was notified that two desperadoes were about to alight from a train there. With four deputies ho went to the station, and no sooner had the train pulled in than the desperadoes opened fire,. Hall received ten shots in his bullet-proof vest. Except for the concealed armor, any one of them would have killed him.

About a year ago a motor cycle officer, William Vincent, of Fast .St. Louis, Illinois, pursued and captured, single-handed, an automobile full of gunmen. Any one of the four body shots which he received during the fight would have been fatal but for the bullet-proof vest which be wore. Not long ago, Benito Mussolini was fired upon by a would-be assassin. The shot, aimed at the Dictator’s body, bad no effect. This, as the correspondent reported, was because lie wore beneath bis clothing a vest of “bard leather”; but leather will not stop a bullet, and the Italian Govcrnniont bad previously ordered four bulletproof vests from Air do Doves. They were obtained through diplomatic agents and sent to Italy. That much is* known. The rest is guesswork, but putting the facts together, the interference is apparent.