CIRCE
"Lipoti Virag, basilicogrammate, chutes rapidly down through the chimneyflue and struts two steps to the left on gawky pink stilts. He is sausaged into several overcoats and wears a brown macintosh under which he holds a roll of parchment."
(U15.2304)
In 1823, Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh patented a method for making waterproof garments. He was trying to find uses for the waste products of gasworks when he discovered that coal-tar naphtha dissolved india rubber. He took wool cloth, painted one side with the dissolved rubber preparation. and placed another layer of wool cloth on top, thus creating the first practical (though imperfect) waterproof fabric. Macintosh's fabrics were much improved when vulcanized rubber was invented in 1839. This is a 19c. CDV of a Hungarian man in a MacIntosh.
