A printer's hat (also called a pressman's or carpenter's hat) is a traditional, box-shaped, folded paper hat, formerly worn by craft
tradesmen
A tradesperson or tradesman/tradeswoman is a skilled worker that specialises in a particular trade. Tradespeople (tradesmen/women) usually gain their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or formal educat ...
such as carpenters, masons, painters, printers, and those who work around or erect
printing presses
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
. For printers, the cap served to keep ink from matting their hair. As for carpenters and painters, the hat was a cheap way to shield them from debris and splattering paint.
The folding process starts with a simple
bicorne
The bicorne or bicorn (two-cornered) is a historical form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as an item of uniform by European and American army and naval officers. Most generals and staff officers of the Napoleonic period wore bicornes, whic ...
hat, then folds the two corners inward and the peak down to create a compact and stable box.
The hat has slowly gone out of use by printers due to the cleaner work environment surrounding newspaper production. Additionally, paper sizes of newspapers have decreased from 15 inches wide to 12 inches wide. This makes 2 sheets of newspaper required to create the printer's hat.
See also
*
List of hat styles
Hats have been common throughout the history of humanity, present on some of the very earliest preserved human bodies and art. Below is a list of various kinds of contemporary or traditional hat.
List
See also
*List of headgear
References
...
References
External links
Instructions for folding different versions of this hat can be found at:
How to Make a Printer's Hat YouTube video Illustrated instructions & photos
Hats
Headgear
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