What Did People Do Before Raincoats?

Getting soaked wasn't just unpleasant. Wet clothing in cold air pulls heat from the body continuously — over days and weeks of incomplete drying, it suppresses the immune system, worsens infections, and kills. Soldiers, sailors, agricultural workers and anyone else who spent long hours outdoors in wet weather knew this. Most of them had very little they could do about it. This is the story of what they tried: waxed linen in ancient Egypt, oiled silk in Han Dynasty China, unwashed wool reeking of lanolin in the Scottish Highlands, and eventually a Glasgow chemist who sandwiched dissolved rubber between two pieces of fabric and invented the mackintosh. But the best solution of all — a garment that was completely waterproof, fully breathable, and functionally identical to Gore-Tex — was invented and perfected roughly five thousand years ago.