On June 17th 1823 Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he was using to make raincoats.
Mackintosh rubberized coats were not immediately successful. Although they were waterproof, they had a strong smell which most wearers found unpleasant. It was not until a fellow chemist, Thomas Hancock, invented a process involving vulcanized rubber that the problem was solved. Hancock became a partner in Macintosh’s business in 1834. This marked the real start of the iconic Mackintosh brand.
In 1824 an Arctic exploration team trialled rubber coated waterproof canvas bags, air-beds and pillows made by the Macintosh patented process. In 1841 the British army ordered waterproof clothing for all its troops. The rubberized coats and capes were functional and hard wearing and they soon became standard army issue.
After the death of Charles Macintosh in 1843, the company had a period of decline. But in 1851 the Mackintosh coat was shown at The Grand Exhibition at Crystal Palace, London. And the rest is history.
Of course just because you patent something it does not mean you actually were the first to invent it, controversy has followed the invention of the telephone since Alexander Graham Bell patented it, other inventions were questioned, the tyre, the television and the bicycle, all connected to Scotland and all have earlier versions that were thought of, or made beforehand, the “Mac” is no different.
James Syme, a surgeon and chemist based in Edinburgh, had discovered a derivative of coal tar (naphtha) could dissolve rubber and published his findings in Thomson's Annals of Philosophy five years before Macintosh came up with his idea.
It was the same process used by Macintosh following his own chemistry experiments with waste from Glasgow’s coal-gas works, and it has been claimed that the inventor had read Syme’s work before developing it for his own uses.
While Syme, uninterested in commercial matters, failed to patent his valuable discovery and continued to build a noteworthy career in surgery, Macintosh stamped his name on the idea in 1823, had Syme done so you might be calling the coats Symes.....it doesn’t have the same ring does it? Syme’s paper had not detailed the crucial sandwich-type construction employed by Macintosh, although this too was not completely new.
Spanish scientists previously used the method to make leak-proof containers for mercury, and renowned British balloonist Charles Green made a balloon envelope that applied the same principle in 1821.
French scientists also made balloons gas-tight and impermeable by impregnating fabric with rubber dissolved in turpentine and the use of rubber to waterproof fabric dates back to the Aztecs, who used natural latex.
But what made Macintosh’s invention revolutionary was its ease of manufacture and wear, seeing him swiftly launching into the production of cloth to be converted into coats and other garments by tailors in Glasgow.
Some of you might have picked up on the different spelling of the names in the first two paragraphs? Others will now be scrolling back to see what I mean! Well when As news of his invention spread, the repeated misspelling of the inventor’s name is thought to have popularised the description of the resulting coat as a “Mackintosh” – a name that has stuck to the present day.
Macintosh was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society for his contributions to chemistry and enjoyed considerable success before his death in 1843, aged 76.
First sold in 1824, his coat remains on the market in numerous forms across the world, it is now primarily a luxury brand still bearing its inventor’s name, even though it is spelled wrong!
