The hard hat is essential safety equipment for construction workers, protecting against various hazards. It was invented by ED Bullard in 1919 and quickly became popular. The original version was made of vaporized canvas and leather, but later versions were made of metal, fiberglass, and plastic. Hard hats come with various features such as visors, welding masks, and insulation to protect against electric shock. They are required in most workplaces to reduce the risk of injury and have become an iconic symbol of American construction workers.
A hard hat is safety equipment designed to protect the skull and soft tissue of the face. Hard hats are required on most construction sites, where workers are at risk of injury from falling objects, electric shock, falls, splashes and a variety of other workplace hazards. Although the hard hat was only introduced in the early part of the 20th century, it quickly became the must have piece of equipment in the workplace and hard hats have saved untold numbers of lives since the first “Hard-Boiled Hat” was introduced in the 1919.
The original Hard-Boiled Hat is the brainchild of ED Bullard, a pioneer in workplace safety who was concerned about the large number of catastrophic accidents that miners in California have suffered. He wanted to perfect the soft leather hats worn by miners and developed a stiff vaporized canvas hat stretched over a suspension system that lifted the hat off the head. The hat was known as a Hard-Boiled Hat due to the manufacturing process and was coated in black paint before being shipped for sale.
The concept of protective headgear quickly caught on, and the first official hard hat area in the United States was on the site of the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened in 1937 to great acclaim; partly due to the low incidence of injury and death during bridge construction. Workers on the Hoover Dam also wore hard hats, and the ED Bullard Company produced the first metal helmet in 1938, followed by a fiberglass version in the 1940s. These materials were stronger, more durable, and more protective, and as a result, workplace injuries were greatly reduced.
In the 1950s and 1960s, thermoplastics became more affordable than metal or fiberglass, and the lightweight and sturdy plastic hard hat was born. The Bullard Company was the first to use injection molding to create hard hats and has continued to come up with innovative suspension systems to support the hard hat on the head while ensuring it does not slip or break in the event of a workplace accident . In the 1980s, in response to requests from several major customers, the Bullard Company also developed specialized hard hats for emergency personnel, climbers, and others in need of lightweight, rugged protective headgear.
A basic helmet has a lightweight, rigid shell attached to an internal suspension system that keeps the helmet snug against the head. Some models also integrate visors to protect the eyes, welding masks, lamp clips and insulation to protect against electric shock. Many also integrate a space for hearing protection, another frequent need on the construction site. When worn correctly, a hard hat protects the skull and soft tissue of the face and is required in most workplaces for all individuals, even those who are simply visiting, to reduce the risk of construction-related injury.
Classic hard hats come in white or yellow, but rarely stay solid for long. Many construction workers decorate their hard hats with stickers commemorating workplaces and union memberships, in part to help distinguish which hard hat belongs to whom. The hard hat has become part of the iconic image of the American construction worker, thanks to its ubiquitous presence on the construction site, and the term “hard hat” is sometimes used in slang to refer to construction workers.
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