The pith helmet (also known as the safari helmet, sun helmet, topee, sola topee, salacot or topi) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith (typically pith from the sola, Aeschynomene aspera, an Indian swamp plant, or A. paludosa, or a similar plant). Designed to shade the wearer's head and face from the sun, pith helmets were often worn by people of European origin in the tropics, but have also been used in other contexts.
Read more about Pith Helmet: Origins, Colonial Period: The Foreign Service Helmet, Home Service Helmet, Use in The Twentieth Century, Civilian Use
Famous quotes containing the words pith and/or helmet:
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It’s very hot,
And weighs a lot,
As many a guardsman knows,
So off that helmet goes.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)