Serious attention is being paid in Germany to plans for
per- fecting a light coat of mail impenetrable to rifle-bullets or to the bayonet. The one we mentioned last week, invented by Herr Dowe, a tailor of Mannheim, has, it is asserted, already been provisionally purchased by a syndicate for £150,000; but it is only one of three. Another was made two years ago by an Austrian engineer named Sarneo, who tried in vain to induce his Government to take it up ; while a third has been submitted to the German Military Depart- ment by an engineer of Mannheim, named Reidel. It is said that the latter can make an impenetrable shirt covering the frame down to the knee and capable of adhering to uniform cloth, which weighs only 5 lb. All are believed to be made of compressed hemp, faced with rings of thin wire, and all are completely bullet-proof at a hundred yards, though all, of course, allow the bullet to inflict a terrible bruise. We have said enough elsewhere of the effect this discovery may have in war ; but may add here that it certainly will afford a wonderful protection against bullets for artillerymen, and those who work Gatling guns.
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