A Shot at Invention
When President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, demand for bulletproof vests soared. But years earlier, in 1893, a Polish priest in Chicago named Casimir Zeglen had already begun working on bullet-stopping armor. The mayor of Chicago had just been murdered, and Zeglen wanted to reduce violence.
Silk vs. Steel
By 1897, Zeglen had patented a silk-based vest that could stop a bullet, and demonstrated it by being shot on stage. To manufacture his invention at scale, he partnered with Jan Szczepanik, a celebrated Polish inventor, and returned to America to promote the product.
Stolen Spotlight
In 1902, Scientific American published an image of a man firing a gun at another wearing a silk vest. It credited Szczepanik as the inventor, not Zeglen. Zeglen was enraged. He returned to Europe to show his patents and defend his claim—but the fame had already shifted.
Silk Fades, Steel Rises
By 1910, advances in firearms made silk obsolete. Zeglen was pushed out of his church and vanished into obscurity. Szczepanik moved on to other inventions. But Leo Krause and others revived the bulletproof vest with steel plates—one demonstration at a time.
When President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, bulletproof vests captured public imagination.
But the real story began in 1893 when a Polish priest in Chicago, Casimir Zeglen, set out to reduce gun violence by inventing a vest made of woven silk…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/EFDlgTpayY
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) May 20, 2025