THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK 
—— 
The whole story was told in a book, *“ THE 
LiFe AND LABOURS OF JOHN MERCER,” by 
Edward A. Parnell. It was printed by 
Longman’s for private distribution in 1886. 
Few copies were sold. Most of them were 
given to friends of the Mercer family. It is 
now out of print. Very few copies are in 
existence. 
However, Mr. Henry Williams, Librarian 
of the College of Technology, Manchester, 
was kind enough to lend me his copy for a 
month. 
This book has suddenly become of great 
value, as it describes the early beginnings of 
the Artificial Silk industry. 
Little did the author think that his book 
would become so valuable. Neither he nor 
John Mercer knew the vast influence of 
Mercer's experiments. This story is here 
made public for the first time. 
John Mercer was born in 1791, at a small 
village called Dean, near Blackburn. His 
father had a small spinning-mill, but, when 
the new spinning machinery came in, the 
Mercer family were forced out of the spinning 
business. They bought a small farm and 
20