helmetsandhats

MINERS' HELMETS & CAPS

Back View

Mine Rescue Apparatus Hat

Unmarked

Patented Lamp Bracket on unmarked cap.

Louis Scherz Patent Lamp Holder on Unmarked Cap

T.R Jones Patent Lamp Holder on Coal king Cap

Jos. Barta Patent Lamp Holder on Penn Mfg Co. Cap

T.R. Jones Patent Lampholder on Coal King Cap

T.R. Jones Coal King Cap

Unmarked.Wet Mine Hardhat

Style worn in Lake Superior Region Iron & Copper Mines ca. 1880-1910

Unmarked

Cool Cap made by Portable Products Corp.

Safety Brand with Louis Scherz Patent Lamp Holder

E.D. Bullard Co.

Turtle Shell Style

T.R. Jones Coal King Cap

Label on Cap to Left

T.R. Jones Coal King Cap

E.D. Bullard Co.

Hardboiled Hat

T.R. Jones pre-Coal King Cap

Unmarked

Early E.D. Bullard Co.

E.D. Bullard Co.

Hardboiled Hat

Penn Mfg. Co.

Duperite Brand made in Australia

Great Britain

France - All Leather

Czechoslavakia - All Leather

Great Britain

France - All Leather

Great Britain - All Leather

Miners' helmets and caps in the U.S. were initially used more for the utilitarian purpose of having a place to hold a lamp while the miner worked. They were later developed into a safety device to protect the miner. In the United States, the E.D. Bullard Company was a mining equipment firm in California, created by Edward Dickinson Bullard in 1898, who had been in the industrial safety business for 20 years. The company sold protective hats, but they were only made of leather. His son, E.W. Bullard, arrived home from World War I with a steel helmet, which provided him with an idea to improve industrial safety. In 1919 Bullard patented a "Hard-Boiled Hat", made of steamed canvas, glue and black paint. That same year the U.S. Navy commissioned Bullard to create a shipyard protective cap, which began the widespread use of hard hats. Not long after, Bullard developed an internal suspension that would provide a more effective hat.