The Lamar register., 1900-03-28
MERCERIZED COTTON.
WHAT 1T is, HOW 1T is MADE.
WHAT 1T DOES.
An Engiishman Discovered the Process
but Didn't Develop the Wrinkle
That Made 1t UsefuE-suk Produced
Out Of Cotton.

ed his mothers kettle boil. The lid
Quivered, rose little, and the boy gave
steam motor to the world. John Mer-
Ger, an English dyer, filtered caustc
soda through n square of cotton cloth.
Thence a new yerb-to merceriZe-in
the language. a new fabric on the mar
ket, and a new business, engaging mil
Hons of capital, to cheer the unem-
ployed.
The story of the boy, John Watt, is
old. but Mercer's story is new and in
teresting. Mercerized cotton, either
cotton yarn or cotton cloth, resembles
silk absolutely. 1t has the luster of
silk; It will take on, like silk, the rich
est and most brilliant dyes. and it has
the unmistakable, soft-harsh, nesting
feel which nothing but silk ever had.
Also cotton under this process. does
not weaken, as might have been fear
ed, but 1t acquires strength. A skein
of cotton yarn in the natural state
that will carry thirteen ounces without
breaking. will carry, after merceriEing.
nineteen ounces. And II you take three
coats. and line the first with q plain
cotton lining, the second with mercer
lied cotton and the third with silk, the
cotton and the silk will wear out about
together. but the merceriIed lining
will outlast them two or three times
over. Mercerized cotton is used in lin
ings, in underwear, in spindle banding,
In stockings, in dress goods. in neg
ligee shirts. There is profit in mer-
cerizing OF from 100 to 200 per cent
In the last year or two many public
dyers have added mercerizing ma
chimes to their plants, and a good num-
Der Of mercerizing mills have been es-
tablished.
Mercerizing began as far back as
1s46 in the English town OF Accrington,
where John Mercer, manager for the
firm OF Hargreayes, filtered cAustic
soda through cotton cloth. Mercer, by
accident, kept this cloth by him, hap
pened to test its strength. happened to
splash it with a dye, He found that
II was about twice as strong and about
twice as susceptible to dye liquor as
1t had been before He refused for his
secret an offer OF s2OO.O 900 from
French firm He had the idea OF an
immense syndicate. with himself at the
head. rolling up millions OF profits per
annum.
Then 1t was found that cotton
shrunk in the mercerizing. A yard OF
cloth would save in dyestuts and in
raw stock. say five cents to its manu-
facturers, but It would come out OF the
mercerizing bath only three-quarters
of yard OF cloth Against the profit
OF five cents loss through shrinkage
of aboCS ten cents would have To be
set. That is why Mercer never formed
his syndicate, why mercerizing was of
no commercial Importance until lat
terly.
For the remaining twenty years of
his life the man toiled Intellectually on,
and he died disheartened. But his name
lives That is because somewhere
around 1890, Horace Lowe, in England,
and Thomas and Provost, in Germany,
began to try to see If It might not be
possible to merceriZe a cotton thread
and to prevent the thread from shrink
ing in the process. They more than
succeeded. They tied the ends of their
cotton thread to sticks and then mer-
cerized them. The sticks did not
break, the threads did not even show
signs of shrinkage. So easy was 1t to
do what Mercer had been failing at for
years and years.
But, more than this, they found that
cotton mercerized under tension came
out glossy. soft and rustllng To their
amazement they found that they had
transformed cotton into silk. The ex-
PLANTATION OF the Iuster that cotton.
being mercerized. takes on. is simple.
The soda and the tension together
change the nature of the cotton fbre
The natural fibre is fiat, shriveled: the
mercerized fibre fills out, becomes
round and smooth. And just as
fat. dried raisin has no luster, where
as the full, ripe grape catches and
throws back the light. so there is no
luster to the fat fibre OF the natural
cotton. but on the mercerized sort the
light shines and is reflected just as on
tha pranR