The armor is a type of defensive clothing that was used in ancient times.
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) recognizes almost a dozen meanings of the term armor , which comes from the Latin word armatūra . The first meaning mentioned refers to the set of defensive elements that, in ancient times, soldiers used to protect their bodies .
It can be said, in this sense, that armor was a garment since it was made up of various garments or parts that covered the combatants. The purpose of the armor was to minimize damage in the event of an enemy offensive: if the person clad in armor was attacked with a sword, to mention one possibility, the material of the clothing prevented injuries that would otherwise be caused by the armor. edge of the weapon
history of armor
It is estimated that armor emerged in the second millennium BC. Until then, the military did not usually cover their bodies with special protections.
Early armor consisted of a padded linen or leather cuirass, sometimes lined with metal plates , worn together with a helmet.
Depending on each town, the armor could have components made of metal, leather, bone , shell or wood, for example. Nowadays, however, the idea is usually associated with full armor (also known as white armor or steel plate armor ), which came into use in the Late Middle Ages .
Articulated parts
The so-called complete armor was formed with multiple pieces of steel or iron that were articulated together, being joined with rivets and straps. The equipment could weigh up to thirty kilograms.
Beyond the high weight, the complete armor did not limit movements thanks to the distribution of the kilos and the joints. The rigidity of the assembly, in turn, helped distribute the energy of the blows received and prevented cuts.
The body was protected with elements such as the breastplate and pannier , while the extremities were protected with armguards , shoulder pads , glove compartments , knee pads , thigh pads , etc.
The armadillo is an animal that has armor.
Armor in anatomy
According to the RAE , the skeleton can be called armor: that is, the pieces that provide consistency to a body.
In any case, it is more common for the notion to refer specifically to the superficial or external protection that some animals have to defend themselves from predators. The exoskeleton of arthropods and the shell of certain mollusks are constituted as armor.
Let's look at the case of the armadillo . This mammalian animal, also known as tatú , mulita , quirquincho or peudo , has an armor consisting of a bone shell made up of plates .
The concept in architecture
In the field of architecture , finally, reinforcement refers to the metal or wooden segments that are assembled to provide support for the roof of a construction .
The armor is developed with linear pieces organized to resist compression and tensile stresses. Depending on the layout, there are different types of armor. The gable truss , the broken truss , the scissor truss , and the mill truss are some of the structures of this class that can be found on buildings .