标签: helmet

With regard to the forthcoming Geek Hat Competition to be held at Design West 2013, emails have been zipping back and forth between me and my engineering chum Rick Curl, who is just the sort of guy you need on a wild and wacky project like this one. For example, originally I had toyed with the idea of making the base of my hat out of pieces of thin brass sheet metal riveted together (I used to be a dab hand at riveting even if I "say so myself as shouldn't" ). However, I'm now pondering the idea of using my little kiln to make a ceramic cap that LOOKS like it's made out of pieces of thin sheet metal riveted together. (I should point out that that Rick is currently a tad dubious about this approach.) For his part, Rick is bombarding me with ideas about spark generators and smoke generators and plasma globes (I'll need a monster backpack just to carry the batteries). Rick also just sent me a link to the Radio Hat page on the Wikipedia with as associated note saying: "FYI Back in the late '50's my Dad used to have one of these. It was not uncommon for cars to stop in the street when he was out front mowing the lawn." I'm sure it wasn't uncommon for people to stop and stare (grin).   According to the Wikipedia: "The Radio Hat was a portable radio built into a pith helmet that would bring in stations within a 20 mile (32 km) radius." (Surely they were "taking the pith" :-) "It was introduced in early 1949 for $7.95 as the 'Man-from-Mars Radio Hat'" Apparently the hat was available in eight colours: Lipstick Red, Tangerine, Flamingo, Canary Yellow, Chartreuse, Blush Pink, Rose Pink, and Tan (what, no "Spanking Pink"? How disappointing). Well, you learn something new every day. I must admit that I would love to add one of these little beauties to my collection, but I just checked on eBay and nothing was to be found. Maybe one day...

There is a forthcoming Geek Hat Competition to be held at Design West 2013. With regard to this, emails have been zipping back and forth between me and my engineering chum Rick Curl, who is just the sort of guy you need on a wild and wacky project like this one. For example, originally I had toyed with the idea of making the base of my hat out of pieces of thin brass sheet metal riveted together (I used to be a dab hand at riveting even if I "say so myself as shouldn't" ). However, I'm now pondering the idea of using my little kiln to make a ceramic cap that LOOKS like it's made out of pieces of thin sheet metal riveted together. (I should point out that that Rick is currently a tad dubious about this approach.) For his part, Rick is bombarding me with ideas about spark generators and smoke generators and plasma globes (I'll need a monster backpack just to carry the batteries). Rick also just sent me a link to the Radio Hat page on the Wikipedia with as associated note saying: "FYI Back in the late '50's my Dad used to have one of these. It was not uncommon for cars to stop in the street when he was out front mowing the lawn." I'm sure it wasn't uncommon for people to stop and stare (grin).   According to the Wikipedia: "The Radio Hat was a portable radio built into a pith helmet that would bring in stations within a 20 mile (32 km) radius." (Surely they were "taking the pith" :-) "It was introduced in early 1949 for $7.95 as the 'Man-from-Mars Radio Hat'" Apparently the hat was available in eight colours: Lipstick Red, Tangerine, Flamingo, Canary Yellow, Chartreuse, Blush Pink, Rose Pink, and Tan (what, no "Spanking Pink"? How disappointing). Well, you learn something new every day. I must admit that I would love to add one of these little beauties to my collection, but I just checked on eBay and nothing was to be found. Maybe one day...  

I received an email from a Russian friend who said: "I never cease to marvel at the Free Enterprise System. When a product reaches the point where it's almost impossible to improve its functionality, someone will still come up with a way to make people want to ditch their old one and get yours. For example, check out these motorcycle helmets." These words were followed by the pictures shown below.   Now I'm not sure if these are real helmets or just Photoshop creations (I couldn't find them on the Internet, but I really didn't search long, so if you know where to find them please add a comment to let the rest of us know).   As an aside, this reminds me of a bit of fun we had a couple of years ago. This was after Hurricane Katrina when the gas prices shot up. A friend of mine – a German lady – purchased a modern version of the classic Vespa Motor Scooter .   The scooter she ended up with was "spanking pink" in color. We couldn't help ourselves. A group of her friends and I got together to purchase an iconic black German motorcycle helmet and associated motorcycle goggles.   You should have seen her scooting around with her helmet, goggles, and a "Red Baron" white silk scarf flapping in the breeze... Laugh? I almost bought a round of drinks!   But we digress – the images of the helmets that sparked this blog are as shown below:  

I received an email from a Russian friend who said: "I never cease to marvel at the Free Enterprise System. When a product reaches the point where it's almost impossible to improve its functionality, someone will still come up with a way to make people want to ditch their old one and get yours. For example, check out these motorcycle helmets." These words were followed by the pictures shown below.   Now I'm not sure if these are real helmets or just Photoshop creations (I couldn't find them on the Internet, but I really didn't search long, so if you know where to find them please add a comment to let the rest of us know).   As an aside, this reminds me of a bit of fun we had a couple of years ago. This was after Hurricane Katrina when the gas prices shot up. A friend of mine – a German lady – purchased a modern version of the classic Vespa Motor Scooter .   The scooter she ended up with was "spanking pink" in color. We couldn't help ourselves. A group of her friends and I got together to purchase an iconic black German motorcycle helmet and associated motorcycle goggles.   You should have seen her scooting around with her helmet, goggles, and a "Red Baron" white silk scarf flapping in the breeze... Laugh? I almost bought a round of drinks!   But we digress – the images of the helmets that sparked this blog are as shown below: