Posted by David Bamford on March 20, 2008 at 07:12:31 from 220.253.45.247 user David.
In Reply to: Re: Making tents? posted by LukeDolman on March 19, 2008 at 10:53:33:
The tents sewn together by Mother were made of 'thin canvas', which I presume to be cotton-based. They were never intended to be waterproof or to last for longer than the one holiday. In those days, waterproofing would have been done by dissolving Paraffin wax or beeswax in kerosene, and brushing it on to the tent 'roof'. My first tent was proofed in this way, and it was quite effective. Nowadays we have more expensive polymers and exotic silicone-based liquids which do the same thing.
David.