News

Home / News / News

The History of Raincoats

Oct. 10, 2020
Share:

Women Pu Raincoat Suppliers introduce you to the history of raincoats.

For hundreds of years, people have been trying to make clothing waterproof. As early as the 13th century, the Amazon Indians used the milky substance (rubber) extracted from the rubber tree. When European explorers came to the Americas in the 16th century, they observed that indigenous peoples used crude methods and used rubber to waterproof items such as shoes and cloaks.

By the 18th century, Europeans began to experiment with waterproof fabrics for clothing. François Fresneau (François Fresneau) put forward the early idea of waterproof fabric in 1748. John Syme of Scotland further improved the waterproof performance in 1815. In 1821, the first raincoat was manufactured. Manufactured by G. Fox in London, it is called Aquatic of Fox. The raincoat is made of Gambroon, which is a twill cloth with mohair.

These early attempts at waterproof fabrics sometimes involved rubber, but they were not particularly successful. When rubber is used for clothing, the items involved are not easy to wear. If the weather is hot, the clothes will become soft and sticky. If it is cold, the clothes will be hard and inflexible. The Macintosh solved this problem in the early 19th century.

Scots are chemists and chemical manufacturers. Through experiments, Macintosh discovered a better way to use rubber in clothing. At that time, the natural gas industry was emerging. Coal tar naphtha is a by-product of petroleum fractionation and is used in gasoline plants. The volatile oily liquid is a mixture of hydrocarbons. Macintosh dissolves rubber in naphtha to make a liquid. Brush the liquid on the fabric to make it waterproof.

In 1823, Macintosh applied for a patent for his waterproof fabric manufacturing process. The process involves sandwiching a layer of molded rubber between two layers of fabric treated with a rubber-naphtha liquid. It took some time to develop an industrial method of spreading rubber-naphtha mixtures on cloth. The patented waterproof fabric was produced in the factory in 1824.

These discoveries have led to other innovative uses of rubber, including tires.

The method of vulcanizing rubber was developed in 1839 by Charles Goodyear, a hardware merchant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vulcanization means heating the rubber with sulfur, which makes the rubber more elastic and easier to fuse. Four years later, Thomas Hancock accepted the waterproof fabric invented by Charles Macintosh and used vulcanized rubber to make it better.

With the advent of the calendering process in 1849, the Americans continued to improve the Macintosh process. Macintosh fabric passes between heated rollers to make it softer and waterproof. Another innovation involves the combination of only one layer of cloth and one layer of rubber. Although these improvements made the fabric lighter than the original Macintosh fabric, these raincoats were still quite hot even in the early 20th century. Many raincoats are designed with slits to keep the wearer cool.

Macintosh fabric is not the only waterproof fabric invented in the 19th century. In 1851, Bax & Company launched Aquascutum. This is a kind of wool fabric that can flow through chemical treatment. This raincoat became popular at the end of the Crimean War (c. 1856).

Pu Raincoat

Pu Raincoat

Chemically treated fabrics gradually began to dominate in the early 20th century. In the First World War, Thomas Burberry (Thomas Burberry) created the all-weather trench coat. This coat is made of yarn-dyed fine twill cotton gabardine. Chemical treatment of gabardine to prevent rain. Although these trench coats were originally made for soldiers, they became popular after the end of the war in 1918. They are also much cooler than fabrics made of Macintosh.

By 1920, the design of raincoats had surpassed that of windbreakers, although raincoats were still a classic. Oil-treated fabrics, usually cotton and silk, became popular in the 1920s. Oil skin is made by brushing linseed oil on the fabric to make it runny. Car coats came out in the 1930s. These raincoats are shorter than windbreakers and are suitable for riding in cars. Between the two wars, rubber-backed raincoats (made of various fabrics) also became popular again.

After 1940, raincoats made of lightweight fabrics became popular. Military research has led to raincoat fabrics that can be dry cleaned. Vinyl was the fabric of choice in the 1950s due to its impressive water resistance, as was plastic (throughout the 1970s), although this raincoat retained heat. Fabric innovation continues to affect raincoats. Since the 1950s, wool blends and synthetic fiber blends have often been used to make raincoats. Such mixtures can be machine washed. The chemical treatment of the cloth has also been improved. Hot-melt seams are also introduced to improve the waterproofness of the fabric.

In the 1960s, nylon was used to make raincoats, and in the 1970s, double knitting became the preferred fabric. The waterproofness of double-layer knitted raincoat is not as good as other fabrics, but its compensation design is also different. Still, such raincoats are not so comfortable, and the double-layer knitted fabric has faded throughout the decade. Vinyl raincoats briefly regained popularity, especially among women.

Modern raincoats come in a variety of fabrics, styles and colors. Pu Raincoat is still the most popular.


Next: None
Contact Us
  • E-mail: michael@puraincoat.com
  • Mobile: +86 158 3399 2359
  • Add.: No. 314, Hengshan Street, Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang Hebei, China 051130
Get in Touch with Us
CAPTCHA
  • wechat

    michaelleeis: michaelleeis

Chat with Us