Is It Raining?

Hi for our latest class exercise we had to interview a famous Scot... a famous Scot who has been dead for at least 57 years... confusing.... yes anyway. Lewis: Hello Mr Macintosh. Charles: hello

Lewis. Lewis: how was your journey...?
Charles: lets just say it was an experience.

Lewis: So you are the inventor of the raincoat?
Charles: well yes well at least the Macintosh raincoat.

Lewis: I see. So tell us a little about yourself?

Charles: Well I was born in Glasgow 1766 on December the 29th. I was first employed as a clerk, but I spent all my own time exploring the world of science. Chemistry was my preferred science though. But when I was 20 I decided that I didn’t want to be a clerk anymore and got a job in a chemical factory. I was very successful. I invented a number of new processes.

Lewis: So how did discover and make the new waterproof fabric used to make your coats?
Charles: well I was actually experimenting with the by products of gas work when I discovered that coal-tar naphtha dissolved India rubber. I used the dissolved solution to stick 2 bits of wool together and it was water proof.

Lewis: So no more wet jumpers...ha-ha
Charles: not quite, my first design had many flaws. It had a strong smell of rubber and was not temperature resistant.

Lewis: What do you mean temperature resistant?
Charles: well in the cold it went stiff and in the heat it went sticky. Not very practical

Lewis: not very practical indeed.
Charles: yep. Also if you ripped it the solution would deteriorate very fast. And to make things worse the fabric was easily punctured

Lewis: oh my... How did you sort this?
Charles: well with the discovery of vulcanised rubber the problems of the temperature was sorted. They would no longer become sticky or stiff.

Lewis: Oh Well. It was a good chat we had Charles but that’s my time up. Got to get back to class and report back to nelson.
Charles: thank you bye-bye