Hard Hat Inventor Honored for National Construction Appreciation Week

The third week of September is National Construction Appreciation Week. In honor of the week, the National Inventors Hall of Fame is celebrating Edward W. Bullard, inventor of the hard hat.

Bullard’s hard hat was the first commercially available industrial head protection device. The lightweight, non-conducting hard hat design was sturdy enough to withstand many falling objects. Bullard’s invention has since become a mandatory piece of equipment for protecting millions of workers around the world.

“The significance of the hard hat has been reinforced for more than a century,” said Rini Paiva, executive vice president for selection and recognition at the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“Established in 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) required workers to wear hard hats on job sites, and since then, the number of worker deaths has decreased substantially, demonstrating the importance of head protection in the workplace.”

Bullard, a veteran of the First World War, returned home from the war and went to work for his father’s company, E.D. Bullard Co., in San Francisco, which sold mining equipment. While working, Bullard noticed miners had no head protection from life-threatening falling debris. He invented the first commercially available industrial head protection device originally designed for miners.

Inspired by the steel “doughboy” helmets he and other soldiers wore in France, Bullard developed a safety helmet based on the same design for miners and others engaged in dangerous work.

An early hard hat. Image: bullard.com, History of the Hard Hat.

“To create this new helmet, he used alternating layers of sturdy canvas and glue,” said Paiva. “Steaming the stiff canvas to make it temporarily pliable, he glued together overlapping layers to form the shell. Then he covered the shell inside and out with water-resistant shellac for added strength and durability, and he added leather front and rear brims. Bullard initially called this helmet the Hard Boiled Hat, referring to the steam used in its manufacturing process.”

A modern S51 3-rib hard hat. Image: Bullard.

It was patented and entered production in 1919. About six million hard hats are now sold annually. In 2020, Bullard became one of 22 innovative pioneers being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“The National Inventors Hall of Fame honors the visionaries whose patented inventions have changed our world,” said Paiva. “Our panel of experts in science, technology, engineering and patents selected Bullard because his hard hat design has become a ubiquitous and mandatory piece of equipment for protecting millions of workers around the world.”

For more on the impact of the hard hat, listen to The Construction Record podcast.

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