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Mackintosh
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Thomas Hancock
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umbrella
coat
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mackintosh
mackintosh Mackintosh raincoat shop, London.

Mackintosh

clothing
Also known as: raincoat
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β€’History

Mackintosh, waterproof outercoat or raincoat, named after a Scottish chemist, Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), who invented the waterproof material that bears his name. The fabric used for a mackintosh was made waterproof by cementing two thicknesses of it together with rubber dissolved in a coal-tar naphtha solution.

Macintosh patented his fabric in 1823. The word mackintosh has become a general term for any raincoat.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.