Sheldon Brown's Engineer Hat

I eventually wore this hat out. I used to wear it everywhere, including when riding my bike. (This was before the general use of bicycle helmets.) I rigged a rear-view mirror to an alligator clip that would attach to the visor.

Before I got this hat, I used to cycle in a baseball hat, if not bare-headed. A friend of mine explained to me that baseball hats are made to blow off and fall out of your way when you're chasing a fly ball, while an engineer hat is designed to stay on your head even when you stick your head out the window of a speeding locomotive.

Looks like I was doing some sort of modification or repair to an electronic flash unit in my darkroom in Watertown, Mass.

I took this photo in September, 1976 with Tri-x and an old Kodak Tourist folding 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 camera. I photographed the netagive with my Nikon Coolpix in July, 2000.