quote:

Some cowboy hats have been called "ten gallon" hats. The term came into use about 1925.[27] There are multiple theories for how the concept arose.

Stetson hat company boasted that the tight weave of most Stetsons hats made them sufficiently waterproof to be used as a bucket. Early print advertising by Stetson showed a cowboy giving his horse a drink of water from a hat.[28] However, even the Stetson company notes that a "ten gallon" hat only holds 3 quarts (about 3 L instead of 40 L).[29][30]

Another theory is that the term "ten gallon" is a corruption of the Spanish term "galón", or galloon, a type of narrow braided trimming around the crown, possibly a style adapted by Spanish cowboys. When Texas cowboys misunderstood the word "galón" for "gallon", the popular, though incorrect, legend may have been born. According to Reynolds and Rand, "The term ten-gallon did not originally refer to the holding capacity of the hat, but to the width of a Mexican sombrero hatband, and is more closely related to this unit of measurement by the Spanish than to the water-holding capacity of a Stetson.”[30]

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
Anybody ever heard of Ben Johnson

Best

GWB

http://deelores.homestead.com/johnson.html