How to Make a Bulletproof T-shirt | Hacker News Reader

How to Make a Bulletproof T-shirt

news.discovery.com

48 pointsmattjaynes20 comments

I'm disappointed. I was all ready to make at bulletproof shirt. These instructions are not easy to follow at all. Anyone have a good recipe for "black solution of boron"? Also, my oven apparently does not go to 1000. Disappointing indeed.

"black solution of boron" is a bit ubiquitous. But there are enough forms of boron readily available on the market that several "likely candidate" test batches could be produced easily. And your oven will go to 1000C, just not your conventional oven. Your microwave oven will hit 1000C and beyond, you'll just need to tape off the air vent and use a refractory of some sort. I've use silicon carbide and ceramic weave to melt copper in my microwave. It's melting point is just north of 1000C. So cheap walmart T's + boron + a freecycle microwave and you could be on your way to a kickass new startup. Let me know when you start the seed round.

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Considering iron (melting point 1538C) can be melted using only coal and something to hold it in, I think a truly dedicated superhero-to-be could manage the requisite 1000C

After an hour, the strips were removed from the solution and baked in at oven at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius

Am I the only one that thinks this would not be out of place in a comic book describing a hero making his costume?

What good is a highly flexible bullet-proof material if it stops the bullet somewhere inside or on the other side of your body?

It would at least make extracting the bullet easier by keeping the fragments contained in fabric. Dragging the fabric along with it would probably slow the bullet down a lot faster too - meaning shallower penetration.

Reminded me of the theory that Mongolian soldiers wore silk shirts because it made extracting barbed arrows easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_armour

Watch the first video starting at about 1:10. From my understanding the material could have two properties -- being both soft and pliable, but also becoming hard as a board instantly upon impact as from a bullet.

So it's like a Newtonian fluid? Didn't the mythbusters shoot a corn starch solution to find out if it can stop bullets? It could not, but maybe this thing can?

I think what they are saying is that it can go from having properties of Newtonian fluid (like water) to something as stiff as a board under magnetic influence.

"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," said Li.

TIAS?

(Google doesn't seem to know TIAS, it's "Try It And See"?)

Maybe the shirt won't tear, but it will sure bend a lot, bend in towards the body. That will leave one hell of a bruise.

Yeah, it's technically a "theoretically bulletproof t-shirt" until they get around to that testing bit.

It seems a bit premature, indeed. Disappointing journalism.

Yeah, crappy science/tech journalism strikes again. With a little effort the writer and editor could have made the article and title just as engaging, without the misleading hype.

From my understanding the weave also plays a big role in bullet resistant fabrics. ...and yes, catching the bullet on "the other side", while not ideal can still save your life.

By Eric Bland | Thu Apr 1, 2010 07:00 AM ET

March 17 mention:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cotton-T-shirts-Could-Become-...

Xiaodong Li's CV (PDF format) mentions the paper (#147 in his list of publications):

http://www.me.sc.edu/fs/pdf/Chris_Li.pdf

Seems to fit in with the rest of his research, as well. It could be an April Fools Day prank, but there's enough out there to make me think it's not.

Or, per the recent Mythbusters (another Discovery production), you can cover every square inch of your torso in three phone books.

This may be less practical, but some evidence suggests it could work.

And unlike T-shirts and boron, phone books show up on my porch unbidden.

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