Hard Hat

A hard hat is a protective helmet used mainly on construction and industrial sites to shield the head from falling objects, impacts, electric shock and rain; suspension bands inside the shell spread the force of an impact across the top of the head and hold the shell about 30 millimeters away from the skull so a blow is less likely to reach it directly, and some designs add a mid-line reinforcement ridge for extra impact resistance, a role also filled in a different context by the rock climbing helmet. A lighter alternative, the bump cap, uses simple padding or a light suspension with a chin strap but cannot absorb a large impact such as a tool dropped from height. Shipbuilders once hardened hats with pitch for protection, and the management professor Peter Drucker credited the writer Franz Kafka with developing the first civilian hard hat while working at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia around 1912, though no document from Kafka's employer supports the claim; the modern hard hat industry, with its standardized designs, developed through the twentieth century in the United States.