Hat Tip

Tip your hard hat in his memory:

"Realizing the need for greater safety within the mines, Bullard designed a hard hat for miners inspired by the steel doughboy helmet he wore as a soldier," states a Bullard company biography. "The helmet was made of canvas, glue and black paint, and given the trademarked name ‘Hard Boiled’ because of the steam used in the manufacturing process," the National Museum of American History reports. The Hard Boiled Hat Edward W. Bullard invented the hard hat in 1919. Early models were called Hard Boiled Hats, as steam was used to bind together the various layers of protection. (Smithsonian/National Museum of American History) The Hard Boiled Hat, first developed in 1919, quickly evolved with better designs and safety measures, including webbing to provide a cushion of space between the helmet shell and a worker's head. For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle Bullard applied for a patent for his product in 1927, receiving approval in 1929. .... Anti-American protests erupted around the nation in the wake of the killing of four Kent State University students on May 4 that year. New York City protests centered around Wall Street and City Hall in Lower Manhattan. "By an accident of history, these protests took place right below one of the greatest concentrations of blue-collar workers in American history," said author Kuhn. That would be the World Trade Center. Some 5,000 hard-hat workers toiled every day in 1970 on the colossal construction project, including its iconic Twin Towers, just blocks from the protests. "These workers were more likely [than the protesters] to have kin and colleagues and neighbors in Vietnam," said Kuhn. Among other affronts to hard-hat Americans: then-Mayor John Lindsay ordered City Hall flags flown at half-mast after the Kent State killings. "The Hard Hat Riot was the prelude to the divide we now live with in America." — David Paul Kuhn New York City's hard-hat workers had enough. They left the World Trade Center, and other job sites around the city, and descended on downtown Manhattan to take back their country — hard hats resting proudly on their heads. "The construction workers marched on through the narrow streets of the Financial District toward City Hall, where they sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and demanded that Mayor Lindsay raise the flags to full-mast," reports Smithsonian Magazine. "They eventually got their way."

You don't need to be hard-headed to appreciate the hard hat...