![]() ![]() Using lightweight cotton sailcloth and coating it with a mixture of linseed oil and wax, the garments didn’t overheat the body as much and did a good job of keeping the mariner dry.Īlthough rain gear or foul-weather gear are the preferred terms nowadays, some mariners still call their rain suits “oilskins.” Today’s rain gear doesn’t use sailcloth, but instead employs a variety of synthetic materials such as nylon, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon). ![]() ![]() Then in 1898, a New Zealander named Edward Le Roy developed “oilskins,” the first commercially available waterproof coveralls and jackets for mariners. In the days of sailing ships, sailors smeared tar on their clothes to make them water-repellent, an unsatisfactory solution that overheated the body and made the garments stiff and hard to work in. F rom painful rashes due to skin rubbed raw to life-threatening hypothermia, mariners have long been plagued by having to work in clothes wet from rain, snow, fog and ocean spray. ![]()
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