Dear Lorraine,
Thought you might be interested in another scrap of info. about ridinbg macs - not a story this time!
As you are aware these mackintoshes are made by sandwiching a thin layer of rubber between two layers of cotton. The weight of the cloth depends on the thickness of the cotton rather than the rubber. Thus by increasing the weight of the cotton a heavier mac is produced and vice versa.
However, apparently during the ghastly First World War a lot of officers took riding macs out with them to the front and found that the appallingly wet weather they encountered was too much for their mackintoshes and demanded something even more waterproof. In due course at least one maker of riding macs started to improve their impermeability by taking the heaviest double texture cloth they could find and bonding a further layer of rubber and another of cotton onto it! This had the obvious result of increasing the weight of the mackintosh and making it less pliable at the same time a making it very waterproof indeed and very long lasting.
These extra strong macs could be bought between the wars but after the rubber shortage during WW2 they did not reappear until the late fifties. They then lasted only a short time before they became very expensive and very few people would buy them. As a result everyone stopped making them until the fetish market opened up in the '80's when one firm introduced a double texture riding mac which they bonded onto a single texture one thus producing a mackintosh that was pretty heavy and rubber lined. Interesting!
Have had a new idea of where one might find old photos and will revert to you if I get anywhere.
Regards,
IMOGEN
Hi Imogen
Thanks for this very interesting information.
A bit embarrassing for me though since I've always told our customers that rubberised mackintoshes so long as their seams are taped are actually really really waterproof in contrast to fashion macs which fend of showers but not serious rain. But in the trenches - well, that is certainly quite a special challenge so perhaps people will see it as a legitimate exemption clause.
Lorraine
Lorraine - Re extra heavy cloth, my contact tells me Zacharias in Oxford sold it in the 80s and possibly made it but mainly it was available through a Manchester firm (Bartlett's, Barkers or something like that) - does not help much, does it? - as I am told a lot of Co's in that area made riding macs.
Imogen - Thanks. Will look up Manchester Bs in the 80s Yellow Pages when I have a minute! L
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