Google logo for Charles Macintosh, the Scottish chemist who invented waterproof fabric

Google celebrates the 250th birthday of Charles Macintosh, who invented the Macintosh raincoat in 1823.

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google-raincoat-doodle

Google has an animated Google logo, aka Doodle, for the 250th birthday of Charles Macintosh, the inventor of waterproof fabric. Which is why the doodle shows the man in a raincoat, to recognize his Mackintosh raincoat. In fact, the first raincoat sold in 1824 but was patented in 1823.

Charles Macintosh was born on December 29, 1766, in Glasgow, Scotland, and died at the age of 76 on July 25, 1843.

Google wrote:

It’s a wonder how the weatherbeaten Brits coped before Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh invented his eponymous waterproof coat. His invention, patented in 1823, came about as he experimented with coal-tar naphtha and rubber and realised they could be fused together with fabric to create a waterproof surface. These days in the U.K., it’s common to call any type of raincoat a “Mac.”

Today’s Doodle shows Macintosh enjoying a Scottish rain shower whilst testing his ingenious invention.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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