"Ten Gallon" Hat
Some cowboy hats have been called "ten gallon" hats. The term came into use about 1925. There are multiple theories for how the concept arose.
Stetson hat company boasted that the tight weave of most Stetsons hats made them sufficiently waterproof to be used as a bucket. Early print advertising by Stetson showed a cowboy giving his horse a drink of water from a hat. However, even the Stetson company notes that a "ten gallon" hat only holds 3 quarts (about 3 L instead of 40 L).
Another theory is that the term "ten gallon" is a corruption of the Spanish term "galón", or galloon, a type of narrow braided trimming around the crown, possibly a style adapted by Spanish cowboys. When Texas cowboys misunderstood the word "galón" for "gallon", the popular, though incorrect, legend may have been born. According to Reynolds and Rand, "The term ten-gallon did not originally refer to the holding capacity of the hat, but to the width of a Mexican sombrero hatband, and is more closely related to this unit of measurement by the Spanish than to the water-holding capacity of a Stetson.”
Either way, using a hat as a water container is apt to seriously damage a modern hat. On one hand, fur felt hats were designed in part so they could be used in the rain. However, wool felt hats were designed for dry climates, and most straw hats can only handle a light rain for a brief time While a very high quality felt hat made from animal fur may hold water, over time, any cloth container will leak. Furthermore, modern hats react differently to getting wet, depending on the quality of the materials used in construction. They are generally likely to lose shape and the felt may also soften up if they are completely drenched.
Read more about this topic: Cowboy Hat
Famous quotes containing the words ten, gallon and/or hat:
“The Supreme Court would have pleased me more if they had concerned themselves about enforcing the compulsory education provisions for Negroes in the South as is done for white children. The next ten years would be better spent in appointing truant officers and looking after conditions in the homes from which the children come. Use to the limit what we already have.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“SWEENEY: I knew a man once did a girl in
Any man might do a girl in ...
Once in a lifetime, do a girl in.
Well he kept there in a bath
With a gallon of lysol in a bath”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Every one knows about the young man who falls in love with the chorus-girl because she can kick his hat off, and his sister’s friends can’t or won’t. But the youth who marries her, expecting that all her departures from convention will be as agile or as delightful to him as that, is still the classic example of folly.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)