Rayonier hard hat group with safety award — 10/1960 — #37749_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Hoquiam
Rayonier Inc.
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 they 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 falling branches 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 did and still do 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."
