Hard hat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For "hardhat diving", see Standard diving dress.
A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in workplace environments such as construction sites designed to protect the head from injury such as from falling objects, debris and bad weather. They are typically required personal protective equipment where heavy labor is being performed. They used to be made out of metal, but since the 1960s, rigid plastic is the preferred material.
Its lower edge sometimes has a small gutter to catch rainwater and shed it off the front peak and not down inside the wearer's coat neck.
They can sometimes be fitted with these accessories:-
- A visor like in a riotsquad helmet but thinner.
- A welding visor.
- Ear protectors.
- A Helmet Light Mount, to provide more light in low-light conditions while letting the wearer work with both his hands free.
Blue-collar workers who engage in heavy professions that require protective equipment are often called hard hats.
[edit] Color distinction
On construction sites different hard hat colors often signify different roles: White for supervisors, blue for technical advisors, red for safety inspectors and yellow for workmen.
[edit] Notable items
- In his last book, Managing in the Next Society, management professor Peter Drucker credits Franz Kafka, the writer, for developing the first civilian hard hat, to be used in steel mills, when Kafka was employed at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia (1912). Whether or not Kafka actually invented the hard hat is open to debate, but he apparently was the first bureaucrat and insurer to demand its use by civilians.
- The original 'Hard-Boiled hat' (patented in 1919 by E. D. Bullard) was manufactured out of steamed canvas, glue and black paint and became the worlds' first, commercially-available, industrial head-protection device.
- The Hard Hat was first used in America by workers at the Hoover Dam.[citation needed]
- America's first designated "Hard Hat Area" was set up at the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge construction site.
- In 1938, E. D. Bullard Company, California, designed and manufactured the first aluminum hard hat.
- Yellow hard hats are given to all new Engineering students in a ceremony during the University of Waterloo's orientation week.
