This tin helmet , which would have been used by a marcher at a torchlight parade in the former nineteenth century , could transform a wearer into a inhabit beacon when its wick was lit . The Henry Ford , whichholds the helmet , dates it to around 1888 .
Starting in the middle of the 19th century , political campaigners trying to drum up support used maneuver adopt from recent spiritual revitalisation to rally the great unwashed to vote . The innovations of theSecond Great Awakeninghad included tent meetings , room access - to - threshold canvassing , and public testimonies of religion , as well as the torchlight parade , according tohistorians of faith Kenneth D. Wald and Allison Calhoun - Brown . Political campaigns used many of these tactics to bring together supporters , even “ earmark spiritual hymns for political uses or commissioning campaign song that draw on sanctified music . ” In a time before broadcast publicizing on radio or television , these methods brought the great unwashed together in localize groups in city and lowly towns , to circularize the word about a nominee ’s worthiness .
Lest we let the storage of torchlight parades in small townsfolk lead us to idealise the high degree of political investment our root seem to have enjoyed , historians Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Bluminwritethat the level of organization and participation that would result in a rousing torchlight procession would have been more vulgar during presidential military campaign , and less so in other eld . There was “ a disproportionate participation of company activists in campaign rallies and other events , ” rather than local people who had been rout out to political knowingness by the event . And by the eighties , when this helmet was in habit , cities were more likely to have torchlight parade than were small township , and the pageant of the parade rather than their political content tended to be the hooking for attendees .
Inventor Thomas Edison appropriated the torchlight parade to promote electrical spark , fit workers with helmets with light on top to make a statement about the safety of his incandescent bulbs . In 1882 hesent 400 such employeesinto a torchlight parade for presidential candidateJames Blaine , wearing elaborate contraptions : helmet with lightbulbs , connected by a wire that would work down the wearer ’s back , out a sleeve , and onto a central cable , which was then touch base to a dynamo and a steam locomotive on a wagon . This tin hat looks underlying , but effective , in comparison .
