Collection:
Juneau—Douglas City Museum
Object ID:
2005.22.176AB
Accession#:
2005.22
Credit Line:
Donated by Willette Janes.
Object Name:
Helmet
Title:
AJ Miner's helmet with carbide lamp
Description:
A mining helmet and metal carbide lamp. The helmet is a composite of resin and layers of textile in a traditional World War I American Army "dough—boy" helmet style. On the inside of the helmet would have been a textile webbing made up of several crossing wide bands of cotton and tightened in place by a textile cord which was wound in and out of the helmet and tied in the back of the outside of the helmet. A leather band on the inside of the helmet would tie into this webbing and cord and serve as a headband to the head as it was worn. In this helmet, the bands of webbing have been broken and in a hasty repair, some sort of tacky petroleum product has been used to keep the leather head band in place, even though the webbing is broken. There is some writing on the inside lip of the helmet, but all that can be read is, "Pittsburgh Made in U.S.A." The outside of the helmet was painted green, but this coating has rubbed off, especially around the top of the helmet. On the top front of the helmet is a piece of heavy leather and metal which from a kind of right angle off the round helmet for the carbide lamp to hook onto. This piece is riveted onto the helmet. Finally there are two pieces of leather that hang from the back of the helmet. One is a leather strip which hangs around the textile cord and has a snap on it and the other is a knotted leather cord which hangs loosely through two holes in the back lip of the helmet.
The carbide lamp is considered one piece even thought the base can unscrew from the main lamp housing. The lamp can be considered in three main parts, the base body, the lamp housing and the reflector. The base body is a screw—on attachment which the calcium carbonate is keep. The lamp housing is where water is housed and added to the calcium carbonate to create acetylene gas for lamp fuel. The gas then is drawn up through a tube and release out into a small opening in back of the reflector. However, the igniter is missing on this lamp. Other parts of the lamp include the on/off switch for amount of gas release and power to the lamp and a belt/helmet hook on the back of the lamp. This lamp would hook onto the helmet with the above—said attachment. Etched into the side of the lamp is a label, "Just Rite" and "Pat. Dec 17, 1901", "Pat. May 7, 1912", "Pat. Oct. 28, 1913" and "Others Pending".
People:
Janes, Willette
Search Terms:
mill
T&E
hardrock
Blasting
Mining
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