|
Macintosh
Works - Cambridge Street & Hulme Street
 Everybody associates
Manchester with rain (although statistically
inaccurate) and the British with brollies and
macks. It is appropriate therefore that in
Hulme close to the River Medlock is a factory that
produced the waterproof cloth used to make macks and
keep off the Manchester rain and rain around the
world.
 The cloth takes its name from its inventor Charles Macintosh who invented a way to bond two layers of cloth on either side of a layer of rubber. The rubber solution was originally manufactured in Glasgow and shipped to Manchester where H. H. Birley built a factory in 1825 to produce Macintosh's patented fabric. The Macintosh process had some problems but in 1844 one of his associates Thomas Hancock came up with a solution that was much more stable. It is suggested that he got the idea from Charles Goodyear and patented it before him.   The original factory on Cambridge Street was demolished by the second and third phase of the factory located along Hulme Street still exist. Soon after World War One the factory was taken over by Dunlop and you can still see the Dunlop name on the building. The octagonal chimney was built in 1851 but actually belongs to the Chorlton Mill across Cambridge Street from the Dunlop factory and connected by an underground flue. The photographs below were taken in April of 2008 and it seems that like many of Manchester's Industrial buildings the factory is being converted into residential apartments.   Close Window |