LIGHT as a feather and yet cocooning, the archetypal Mackintosh raincoat is a timeless classic that remains relentlessly in demand. The wearer can stay nonchalant when the heavens open, safe in the knowledge that unrelenting water droplets will simply form minuscule rivulets before plummeting towards terra firma. As Lord Byron notes in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, ‘big rain comes dancing to the earth’, but such torrents are no match for the rubberised Mackintosh, nor have they been for exactly two centuries, for, in 1823, clever Glasgow chemist Charles Macintosh patented a process of marrying rubber with cotton. He took two layers of fabric and made a ‘sandwich’, giving the otherwise pervious cotton a dissolved India rubber filling. This new material not only formed a barrier to aqua pluvia, but its malleable nature made it matchless for waterproof-coat making. For the first time in modern history (the Aztecs had waterproofed fabrics in the very distant past), people could step outdoors in a manmade fabric and not be drenched by a downpour.
Once a few teething problems had been ironed out—initially, rubber would leach through stitch holes, for example, and early coats gave off a potent whiff in hot weather— the British Army placed an enormous order and Mackintoshes took their first step towards becoming something of a British institution.
Denne historien er fra April 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
