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Interesting discussion. One point that has not been broached is regional variation in helmets. For example here in Cornwall the full brimmed variety seems to be favourie whilst elsewhere in the Country the peaked variety appears to be ubiqitous. Right up to the end of production mining in Cornwall the standard issue at South Crofty was the full brimmed MSA V Gard. Even up to the present day there still seems to be a prefernce for full brimmed helmets. I assume that this is largely a consequence of tradition. 19th century photos show that a large majority of Cornish miners adopted full brimmed helmets. As I understand it the helmets then in use were merely normal felt hats impregnated with some form of resin to stiffen them, hence the brim. The full brimmed helmet would seem to have no inherant benefit over any other design (except in shafts when it stops the drips going down your neck) and thus its ongoing popularity in Cornwall would seem to be a result of historical accident. If this is the case why is the full brimmed helmet not used in the rest of the UK? To speculate; were Cornish miners using helmets before anyone else and so had to improvise. (I get the impression that helmets did not appear in the coal industry until the 1950s whilst they were widespread in Cornwall at the back end of the nineteenth century). It is also interesting to note that the Cornish miner, certainly into the 1950's, wore a cotton skull cap under the helmet. Up to the time of the the introduction of the helmet mounted lamp it seems to have been commom practice to abandon the helmet at the working place and work in the skull cap. Was the skull cap used in any other British minig field? Rick Stewart