Rayonier Retired Employees' Day hard hat group — 7/21/1960 — #37293_1
| Showing 183 of 221 |
Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Hoquiam
Rayonier Inc.
Lowell McGinnis, pulp mill manager, front row, right.
Thanks to Sam Talley who notes: "In all the photos you see of people working in the woods prior to the late 1940's, few if any of the people will be wearing hard hats or 'skull buckets' even though hard hats were invented in 1898. In 1938 aluminum hats were invented but they had a big drawback. Aluminum is a good conductor of electricity so these 'tin hats' did not catch on with loggers until the late 1940's or early 1950's. It was at that time that the loggers learned a good hard hat could protect them from 'widow makers' or branches falling from high up in trees. During this time plastic ones were invented and made in different colors. Traditionally, white was for supervisors, blue for technicians, red for safety personnel, and yellow for laborers. Many loggers in Grays Harbor continue to prefer the metal hats which are still available for about $75.00 each, considerably more than the plastic ones. This writer started bringing home hard hats found in the woods, at garbage dumps, along roads, on fence posts etc. about 40 years ago and I now have about 200 of them in all different colors and styles. The aluminum ones are my favorites."
