Charles
MacIntosh was born in Glasgow in l766. His father originally from the
Highlands had moved to Glasgow where he set up his factory in Dennistoun to
produce a purple dye called cudbear. Cudbear was obtained from
various lichens that were capable of colouring silk and wool. Young
Charles always had a strong interest in chemistry and was a regular
attendee during Joseph Black's chemical lectures at Glasgow
University.
Analysing the by-products from a coal gasworks in 1818, Charles
discovered dissolved India rubber. Joining two sheets of fabric together
with this solution, he discovered that after drying, the new material
could not be penetrated by water. This was to be the first cloth that
could be said to be rainproof - prior to this attempts at waterproofing
using linseed oil and even tar were tried. George Hancock, helped MacIntosh solve many of the problems involved in producing
this waterproof material.
In 1824 the material was introduced and became known as 'Mackintosh'.
Later in 1834 Macintosh founded his own waterproofing company in
Glasgow, but throughout this period he faced opposition from tailors -
they showed little interest in the new cloth. By 1840 he had moved to a
factory in Manchester England, to continue with the manufacture of the MacKintosh material. This factory was to become part of the Dunlop
Rubber Company.
Although MacIntosh will be remembered mainly for his MacKintosh
raincoat, he had many other interests and contributed greatly to local
industrial innovations. 1799 saw him working with Charles Tennant at St
Rollox in Glasgow where they produced a solid bleaching agent that was
used industrially to bleach cloth and paper, this continued well into
the 1920's. MacIntosh also helped James Beaumont Neilson perfect the hot
blast process of smelting iron. he died just outside Glasgow on July 25,
1843.
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