Travellers, especially those venturing forth on great waters, face many perils, but happily one of them can now be avoided: new technology has come to the rescue, as we learn from The Liverpool Mercury and Lancashire General Advertiser of 31 December 1841.
BIGGS’S PATENT ELASTIC HAT GUARD
BY ROYAL LETTERS PATENT
All who have travelled much have experienced the often disagreeable situation they have been in from losing their hats or caps, and the many troublesome expedients they have been obliged to resort to to fasten them. This invention of the ELASTIC HAT GUARD obviates all this inconvenience, and has come into very general use; for, while it perfectly secures the hat, from its elasticity it does not produce the slightest annoyance to the wearer. It can be attached to the hat in a few seconds, and at a very trifling expense.
For gentlemen of the hunt it will be invaluable. For the army and navy it will supersede the present mode of fixing the hats and caps. For commercial travellers, travellers by railway, steam-vessels, or coaches, guards and coachmen, policemen, pilots, and all exposed to the weather, and for boys’ and children’s caps, it is a cheap, simple, and effectual guard.
Sold by all respectable hatters in the kingdom, and by the wholesale trade in London. The Wholesale Depot for Manchester is at MR JOSEPH WORTHINGTON’S, 24, Strutt-street, New Market Buildings; for Denton, Messrs PEACOCK and SONS; for Oldham, Messrs J JACKSON and SONS, by whom the trade can be supplied.
Technology has, alas, superseded even the Biggs hat guard; the discerning traveller nowadays wears a Tilley Hat, which does what it says on the tin, as does the manufacturer. Anything that stayed on in yesterday’s wind deserves a plug.
Irish waterways history 