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I have seen a wax (or resin?) impregnated bowler hat which was worn underground by Henry Johnson, a consulting mining engineer in South Staffordshire in the late 19th Century. David Poyner On 8 Mar 2004 at 21:09, Rick Stewart wrote: > 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 >