The science of the Kelly gang's armour: distilling fact from fiction

Abstract

Studying the composition of the metal of one of the Kelly gang's armour allowed researchers to determine what temperature it had been heated to. This provided an answer to the long-debated question of whether the armour had been made by a blacksmith or on a bush forge. As a charcoal fire and bellows used by a blacksmith can heat metal to over 1000 C, but a bushforge could only get the metal to cherry red, or about 750 C, the scientific distinction can be made. Nothing defines Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang more than their suits of armour. © 2014 CSIRO Publishing.