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Hemp rope armor of the British locomotive "Hairy Mary", South Africa, Second Boer War, ~1898
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Never seen this before. What was it good against?
Not much more than small arms fire, probably. Bit of an ad-hoc solution to Boer raiders and sharpshooters.
It doesn't require daily brushing to maintain the look.
Hemp fiber is stronger than steel tensile strength wise, a bunch of it in thick layers is like a proto-kevlar
yeah, but without being able to bind them together horizontally, the gaps between the larger rope strands will allow small arms fire to pass through in most cases.
Barber-ians
Normalcy, I guess.
I was walking down the street, concentrating on trucking right...
Spiders?