Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh
Charles Macintosh
Born	29 December 1766 Glasgow
Died	25 July 1843 Dunchattan
Nationality	Scottish
Work
Significant advance	Waterproof clothes

Charles Macintosh FRS (29 December 1766 – 25 July 1843) was a Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof fabrics. The Mackintosh raincoat (the variant spelling is now standard) is named for him.

Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links

Biography

Macintosh was born in Glasgow, and was first employed as a clerk. He devoted all his spare time to science, particularly chemistry, and before he was twenty resigned his clerkship to take up the manufacture of chemicals. In this he was highly successful, inventing various new processes. His experiments with one of the by-products of tar, naphtha, led to his invention of waterproof fabrics, the essence of his patent being the cementing of two thicknesses of India-rubber together, the India-rubber being made soluble by the action of the naphtha. For his various chemical discoveries he was, in 1823, elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1828, he became a partner with James Beaumont Neilson in a firm to exploit the latter's patent for the hot blast blowing of blast furnaces, which saved considerably on their fuel consumption.^[1]

Macintosh married, in 1790, Mary Fisher, daughter of Alexander Fisher a merchant of Glasgow.^[2] Charles Macintosh died in 1843 at Dunchattan, Scotland, and was buried in the churchyard of Glasgow Cathedral.^[3]

See also

• Raincoat

References

1. ^ Neilson, James Beaumont (1792–1865) on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required)
2. ^ See page 113 of Dictionary of National Biography, 1893.
3. ^ "Charles Macintosh". http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/mno/charlesmacintosh.html. Retrieved 2009-07-09. 

Further reading

• G. Macintosh, Biographical Memoir of the Late Charles Macintosh, 1847
• R. B. Prosser, ‘Macintosh, Charles (1766–1843)’, rev. Geoffrey V. Morson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (Subscription or library card required for online edition)

External links

• "Charles Macintosh". Science on the Streets. University of Strathclyde. http://scienceonstreets.phys.strath.ac.uk/new/Charles_MacIntosh.html. 

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Macintosh, Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Persondata
Name	Macintosh, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 December 1766
Place of birth	Glasgow
Date of death	25 July 1843
Place of death	Dunchattan