Description
Physical description
helmet
Bowl-shaped steel helmet painted in crude dappled camouflage colours of light brown, yellow ochre and orange on an apple green field. The helmet features a pronounced dome with steep sides and the brim is quite shallow in width. The lining system comprises a padding fixed to the crown comprising layers of felt, lint, and cotton wool. A six-tongue liner of black American cloth is attached to the liner band and features a tape tie that would permit the wearer to adjust the fit of the liner to suit, there being apertures at the ends of the tongues. Around the outside of the liner is fixed a series of 12 rubber buffers of tubular shape, acting as vents and absorbers. The liner is fixed to the apex of the crown via a copper rivet, visible only from the outside of the crown. The leather chinstrap is missing but the two rectangular wire loops are present, secured either side of the helmet by single rivets.
Attached to one side of the external shell is the remains of a paper label that once recorded: "Steel Helmet Type B approved 26th September 1915."
History note
Original caption:
The original Type "B" brodie pattern steel anti-shrapnel helmet approved by the War Office in September 1915.
A steel helmet has been issued to the French troops in the spring of 1915. In August and September, the British authorities made experimental types of the helmet invented by Mr Brodie, of which the second, "B" was approved. Manufacture was begun towards the end of September. It was made in one unit and was of mild steel, and afforded protection against a shrapnel bullet, 41 to the pound, fired to give a striking velocity of 400 feet per second. Its manufacture was a comparatively simple matter, and the rate of production had reached 850 daily when, in the second week of October, decision was taken to provide a helmet of hardened maganese steel.
This helmet is essentialy the prototype of which 150 were originally manufactured for the purpose of sending to France for testing under field conditions (149 were delivered in Seeptember 1915).
Inscription
5705