Mackintosh

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Mackintosh

The Mackintosh or Macintosh (abbreviated as mac or mack) is a form of waterproof raincoat

Raincoat

A raincoat is a waterproof or water-resistant coat worn to protect the body from rain. The term rain jacket is sometimes used to refer to raincoats that are waist length....
, first sold in 1824, made out of rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber is an elastomer?an Elasticity_ hydrocarbon polymer?that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex , found in the sap of some plants....
ized fabric

Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
. The Mackintosh is named after its Scottish

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
inventor Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh

|death_date = 25 July 1843|death_place =|education =|spouse |parents =|children =...
, though a letter k is added by many writers.

Although the Mackintosh style of coat has become generic, a genuine Mackintosh coat should be made from rubberised or rubber laminated material.

Mackintosh brand
Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh

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Encyclopedia

The Mackintosh or Macintosh (abbreviated as mac or mack) is a form of waterproof raincoat

Raincoat

Rubber

Natural rubber is an elastomer?an Elasticity_ hydrocarbon polymer?that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex , found in the sap of some plants....
ized fabric

Textile

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
inventor Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh

Mackintosh brand

Charles Macintosh

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and List of largest United Kingdom settlements by population in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's Scottish Lowlands....
. But in 1830 the company merged with the clothing company of Thomas Hancock

Thomas Hancock (inventor)

Thomas Hancock , elder brother of inventor Walter Hancock, was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry. He invented the masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps and which allowed rubber to be recycled after being formed into blocks or sheets....
in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1853....
. Hancock had also been experimenting with rubber coated fabrics since 1819.

Early coats had problems with smell, stiffness, and a tendency to melt in hot weather, but Hancock further improved their waterproof fabrics, patenting a method for vulcanising rubber in 1843, which solved many of the problems.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the company continued to make waterproof clothing. In 1925 the company was taken over by Dunlop Rubber

Dunlop Rubber

Dunlop Rubber was a British company which manufactured tyres and other rubber products for most of the 20th century. It was taken over by BTR plc in 1985....
.

In the mid 1990s the company which then owned the brand, Traditional Weatherwear, was on the verge of closing its factory in Cumbernauld

Cumbernauld

Cumbernauld is a new town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was created in 1956 as a population overspill for Glasgow City. It is the eighth most populous settlement in Scotland, the largest in North Lanarkshire, and also larger than two of Scotland's cities, Inverness and Stirling, although being part of the Greater Glasgow urban area....
near Glasgow. It was then acquired by Daniel Dunko. Around the turn of the 21st century, the company made progress to establish the traditional rubberised Mackintosh coat as an upmarket brand in its own right. They collaborated with leading fashion

Fashion design

Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time....
houses such as Gucci

Gucci

The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci, is an iconic Italy fashion design and leather goods label. It was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence in 1921....
, Hermès

Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
, Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Malletier , commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton, or sometimes shortened to LV, is a France luxury goods company. Founded in 1854, one of the main divisions of LVMH headquartered in Paris, France....
and Liberty

Liberty (department store)

Liberty is long-established department store in Great Marlborough Street in Central London, England, in the West End of London shopping district....
. The coats became particularly popular with Japanese women, and the company won a Queen's Award for Enterprise

Queen's Award for Enterprise

The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for United Kingdom businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development....
in 2000 for its success in international trade.

External links

Thomas Hancock: Personal Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Caoutchouc or India-Rubber Manufacture in England, 1st Published 1857, London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmanns & Roberts. – autobiography of the leading UK pioneer of rubber and rubber-proofing technology.
– history of the invention of latex waterproofing
at lakelandelements.com