Hard hat history 4

[MotorCity]

I enjoy watching engineering type programs on TV.....about constructing the tallest building, the longest bridge, the largest ship, or whatever. In watching these various programs, I have noticed that any construction that occurs outside of the USA, all of the construction workers are wearing hard hats with a chin strap. While intuitively it seems like a logical idea, I have never seen this practice in the USA. Is this a geographic thing, a cultural thing, both? It probably boils down to money like everything else, but it just seems for being as safety conscious as we are these days, our hard hats would have chin straps.

 

[cvg]

when I worked in a mine, hats were color coded

green - newbie or visitor
brown - shop, warehouse, mechanics, welders
white - management / engineers
red - EMT / safety
yellow - drillers and equipment operators
grease color - oilers

 

[oldfieldguy]

I've worked at several facilities where color-coded hardhats were used.

One use I totally agreed with was a company that had a distinctive color for the electrical staff. Nobody wearing another color was allowed inside the switchgear and motor control areas.

old field guy

 

[zeusfaber]

UK industry often uses green hard hats to distinguish people with first-aid qualifications.

The Royal Navy uses Blue helmets for ratings and white for senior rates and officers (and the Enemy wear berets even when below decks).

A.

 

[cranky108]

Why not stickers for first aid qualified, and fall protection qualified?

 

[concretemasonry]

JohmRBaker -

Your comments on the white shirts and ties stuck a nerve in me. My first job out of school was as a Facilities Engineer in the Aerospace industry. In one month, I graduated as a CE (5 year curriculum), got married, bought my first car and moved from MN to Southern California. I went to work for the supplier and developer of the rocket engines for 90% of the space program. When I arrived and was ushered to my drawing board and desk, I noticed that every one wore the same uniform - Cotton/polyester short sleeve shirt, black or blue slacks and a narrow dark tie (usually black) and this applied to everyone including managers and supervisors out of convenience. The short sleeves were just common sense because of the weather in the LA area and at Edwards AFB. The only way to tell the rank was to look at the ID badge to determine the security level clearance.

We were strongly encouraged/forced to take evening engineering classes (graduate school)to boost your resume (undated by the company monthly) for submission of the "team" for new projects that required development. I had classes 3 or 4 nights per week at USC for 2 years and felt at home since all of the engineers in the class from different employers were dressed the same. The evening classes were great since the employer paid the tuition, and paid for dinner before class and for driving 40 miles per night. It was the second best position I had in my 40 years of engineering because of the exposure to real very challenging engineering.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

 

[JohnRBaker]

My comments about office dress code was from back in the Midwest, Saginaw, MI, to be exact. By the time I moved to SoCal, I was working for a software company where dress code was a LOT less strict ;-). Now I worked in sales for the first seven years so I always wore a suit and tie to the office since you never knew if you might be interacting with a potential customer or not. Later, after I had moved to a staff position in R & D, while I still tended to wear a dress shirt and sports coat, I had pretty much given-up the tie, except when I was presenting at conferences. Now in the states we tended to be a bit more casual, but overseas, particularly in Asia, it was more formal, shirt and ties and often a full suit or at best a conservative sports coat.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[EdStainless]

Working in factories ties were usually forbidden for safety reasons, and poly also, only cotton or wool (flammability).

I wore a tie to my daughters wedding, but not my Dad's funeral.
I never were a tie for work anymore, not even in Europe or Asia.
Nice slacks and shirt, very nice sports coats, and killer shoes.

Working out of a home office it can be hard to motivate yourself some mornings to not just pull on shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops. But I try to dress in collared shirts real shoes every day.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[Scrip]

John,
I was doing some research on safety standards in Commonwealth countries a while back when I came across this:

http://www.protecdirect.co.uk/Protec-PPE-Blog/Hard-hat-colour-code~ba~HardHatColourBlogPost

........................................
The EAC - One People, One Destiny... One Federation.

 

[racookpe1978]

Worked in Mexico for several weeks: one customer required chin straps, another did not.

The straps were incredibly uncomfortable, increased the heat load and stress while at 98 degrees/95% humidity.

 

[PEinc]

He didn't need no stinkin' chin strap!

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...aying-with-chin-strap-unbuckled-20171011.html

http://www.PeirceEngineering.com