Posted 10 years ago
Emmeranne
(1 item)
Bought from Miller Antiques in Verona PA. I'm trying to get an approximate age on this helmet as it's a gift. The patent dates make me wonder if it's mid-1940s? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
West View Pittsburgh PA firefighter's helmet | ||
| Firefighting259 of 563 |  |  |
Manufactured by Mine Safety Appliances Corp. - The first generation was known as Skullguard and was a hard plastic produced in the 1930's to the 1960's. The second generation was a lighter plastic fire helmet, and was called Topguard, and was introduced in the early 1960's. - Yours is clearly a Skullgard first generation, but they were basically unchanged from their 1930 development to the 1960's so it would be hard to put an approximate date on it unless you can find out when the WVFD started using them.
Given the cut-out leather letters on the front shield I reckon it is pre-war (although front pieces can be switched easily).