

Laminated linen, the ancient world’s Kevlar, protected Alexander the Great - cwan
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/linothorax-alexander-great-armor.html

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blahedo
Really, thinking of this as linen armour is the wrong way to do it. Rather
than linen armour, which is glued together, it is glue armour, which is
scaffolded by the linen. Like modern laminate materials, the weak point is not
the binder but the substrate; in this case it is the glue itself that would
provide protection. The linen, being flexible, holds all that protection
together in a useful non-rigid crystalline form that retains maximal coverage.

~~~
groks
Actually, it is the opposite.

Think of a Formula 1 car: it is strong because it is made of carbon fibre, not
because it is made of glue. Carbon fibres have 5 times the tensile strength of
steel. They are spun into yarn, which is woven into cloth, layered into a
mould, and held rigid by plastic resin. All the strength comes from the carbon
fibres.

In the case of this armour it is the linen which provides the strength, not
the rabbit glue.

"Linen is among the strongest of the vegetable fibers, with 2 to 3 times the
strength of cotton." Wikipedia.

