It is well known that the breastplates of many armours from the later 16th century and the 17th century bear the hemispherical dents generally known as proof marks. It has been taken as axiomatic that these marks were made in order to demonstrate the armours' effectiveness against firearms. If however some of these dents are compared with dents which are the result of battle damage, it appears that they were made by energy levels of a different order of magnitude, and offer little guarantee as

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... o the "proof" of the armour.Como es bien sabido, muchos petos de armaduras de finales del siglo XVI y del XVII tienen abolladuras semiesféricas conocidas como pruebas de arcabuz. Se ha considerado axiomático que estas abolladuras fueron hechas para demostrar la efectividad de las armaduras frente a las armas de fuego. Sin embargo, si se comparan con otras debidas a daños en combate, parece que fueron producidas por energías de diferente orden o magnitud, al tiempo que ofrecen pocas garantías como "pruebas" de las armaduras.