Tintin Forums

A sun helmet:
- is worn by Tintin in The Congo (p.11 to 57)
- shows in Cigars of the Pharaoh in a picture (p.39-A1) & in a frame on the wall (p.43-C1)
- is worn by Tintin & Haddock in The Crab with the Golden Claws (p.39-C1, etc).

In which other book can a similar helmet be seen? Please quote album and page.

There's a similar helmet worn by an unidentified person listening to the radio broadcast about the Shanghai-Nanking railway attack in The Blue Lotus. Page 22, frame C3.

Congratulations, Harrock n roll!
To be answered so fast, maybe the question was too much about 'mainstream knowledge'?!

You turn to set the next question!

To be answered so fast, maybe the question was too much about 'mainstream knowledge'?!

Maybe you're just too competitive yamilah!

The next question is already set right here.

Harrock n roll
Maybe you're just too competitive yamilah!

This is too much honour: the really competitive ones are my 'imaginary friends'* such as Indians, Cervantes, Dante, Julius Caesar & other military*, and Herge's 'potter', of course.

Sun Helmet = Safari Hat. I've never heard of a Sun Helmet!

I'd have called this type of headgear a "sola topi" or "pith helmet", so I've just looked up these two terms in the dictionary, and they're both defined as a type of "sun-helmet" made from the pith of plants. So clearly yamilah's "sun helmet" is also one of the correct terms for this type of hat.

In the case of the sola topi, by the way, the dictionary says it's made from the pith of the sola plant which put me straight, as I'd always thought it was spelt solar (as in sun) topi. So thanks to Tintinrulz's query, I've learnt something today!

Tintinrulz
Sun Helmet = Safari Hat. I've never heard of a Sun Helmet!

Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't necessarily make yamilah incorrect. ;-)

A sun helmet is a hard hat, also known as a pith-helmet or a sola topee (often mis-spelt as “solar”, which is a confusion with its duties as a sun hat, when actually it is to do with the plant that the pith to make it comes from).

To me, a safari hat is more often than not a canvas soft hat with a floppy brim (although I see by Googling that the term brings up everything from straw hats to the topee, so it seems to be more widely applied than it once was).

Looks like Jock123 and I both posted at the same time. Should we start a discussion about whether topi or topee is the more correct spelling, or would that be taking the pith? (Sorry.)

I didn't say he/she? was incorrect. I've just never heard of one before. And yes, pith helmet is probably the more correct term.