SILK SOFT BODY ARMOUR ITS HISTORY AND RELEVANCE - Dr. A.R.Shenoy & Dr. V.R.Shenoy The word armour conjures up images of knights and warriors on horse-backs with gleaming protective metallic gear. But those who had a telling impact on world history in terms of conquest and influence – the Mongols; they used soft body armour which helped mobility as well as protection. Silk naturally played a great part to play in such armour. The relevance of silk in soft body armour continues to this day; the Thai police use such vests as a cost-effective strategy to Kevlar & other advanced materials. Think armour, and what crosses our mind is a heavy metallic shell to protect our body parts from enemy action. Indeed at one point in human history, armours were all about metallic shell and mail - the picture of jousting knights in such gear - like the medieval knights in Europe. However, the heaviness and limited flexibility of such armours made them impractical, the Mongolians used relatively lighter armours comprising leather and silk – naturally, these had a significantly advantageous role to play in the conquests by the Mongolian Golden Horde. It is said that Genghis Khan once issued all his horsemen with silk vests, as an arrow hitting silk does not break it but ends up embedded in the flesh wrapped in silk, much like a soccer ball that hits long lengths of interlaced tether fastened to the goal frame. This allows the arrow to be removed by gently teasing the silk open from the wound, as opposed to the usual method of removing barbed arrows by cutting them out or pushing them right through an injured limb and out of the other side. These silk vests functioned much like the padded armour used by European and Byzantine soldiers of the era, such as the gambeson.