George Ingle Finch, (1888 – 1970) was a chemist and mountaineer and known for creating the first down jacket for a 1922 Mount Everest Expedition. Â
“Is this your famous balloon jacket?”
Finch glowered at me. Â It was obvious that he’d endured too much teasing about that particular article of clothing. Â "It’s the goose-down-filled outer jacket I devised for Everest,“ he snapped. Â "Yes, it’s balloon fabric – the only material I could find that wouldn’t tear or rip and which could be easily sewn for the compartments of eiderdown. Â It kept me warm at almost twenty-four thousand feet below the the North East Ridge.”
From “The Abominable: A Novel” by Dan Simmons