- Chain Mail
Chain mail was originally called just mail or chain in England and maille in France (the French word mail letter means "meshy" or "'netted"). It was not until the 1700s that chain mail became its common English name.
Mail is constructed from a series of links made from wire. These are bent into circles around a forming cylinder, and the finished links are welded or riveted into the form of a shirt. The result is a sturdy piece of armor that affords very effective protection from most cutting blows while at the same time being relatively light-weight and flexible.
Chain mail alone could not protect against crushing injuries, however, and warriors therefore combined it with a gambeson, which was worn underneath the mail. This was a padded jacket made
from layers of wool and other materials that provided effective resistance to impact injuries.
The first mail shirt on record is from a Romanian Celtic chieftain's burial chamber and dates back to the fourth century B.C.E. Chain mail saw extensive use throughout the first half of the last millennium, being employed throughout Europe and Asia, but it was not until the thirteenth century C.E. that mail armor really came into its own. Extending over the whole of a knight's body, the basic mail shirt (or hauberk) was joined by individual mail pieces for the legs, arms, and head, providing more complete protection.
Knights did not wear this type of full armor for long, however. Items of plate armor were increasingly added to the mail, and these grew increasingly more sophist-icated. Foot soldiers continued to wear chain mail until late medieval times.
SEE ALSO: CLOTHING, METALWORKING, WOVEN CLOTH, SEWING, SPEAR, SWORD, HELMET, PIKE
- Chair
Egyptians give a supporting back to a stool.
Chairs have been invented that swing, swivel, rock, roll, recline, told, massage, and even electrocute. Before all of those, however, came the invention of the chair in its simplest form, about 4,800 years ago. More than a thousand years before that, man had invented a way of resting in a sitting position off the floor, on the simple backless seats known as stools.
Stools were raised to an art form by the ancient Egyptians. Beside creating beautiful and ornate stools, the Egyptian craftsmen also focused on function by fabricating stools that folded. Some examples have floor rails and crossing spindles with carved goose heads inlaid with ivory to resemble feathers and eyes.
In the Third Dynasty (2650-2575 B.C.E), Egyptians were also to give stools their greatest adornment, a back to support the seated person in an upright position. By steadily increasing the height of the back from a simple lumbar support, Egyptians soon arrived at high-back chairs.
As they had with stools, the Egyptians turned chairs into art without sacrificing function for appearance. Chairs in the Middle Kingdom (2040- 1640 B.C.E.) were padded for comfort with a cushion, or they had backs of full height. These chairs were curved and fashioned from timber slats and were supported on narrow legs. Sometimes, chairs were painted to give the appearance of animal skin. In the era of the New Kingdom (1540-1070 B.C.E) a new feature was added to the chair: arms. Thousands of years later, with humankind becoming more sedentary than ever, retractable leg rests are a l common option in the quest for the most comfortable chair ever invented.
SEE ALSO: BUILT SHELTER, CARPENTRY, PLYWOOD, GLUE,
HAMMOCK, FOLDING WHEELCHAIR