THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK

il

he wrote on the “germ theory’ before
Pasteur and Koch.

He was a great admirer of Cobden, who
was for a time one of Mercer's commercial
travellers. He was a deeply religious man,
highly esteemed by the many who knew
him.

In 1866 he died. He was planning a new
kind of reservoir for a dye-house. His foot
slipped and he fell in the reservoir. The
wetting brought on a severe cold, which in a
few weeks proved fatal. He was 76. He lies
in the little graveyard at Great Harwood.

He was a rugged, strong-featured man, with
long hair even in old age. He had heavy
eyebrows, a strong nose and square chin. He
did not live long enough to know what he
had done. He never dreamed-of Artificial
Silk, but his inventions prepared the way for
it. Other inventors came after him and used
his work as a stepping-stone. The Artificial
Silk men should never forget what they owe
to John Mercer.

The man who first used the phrase ‘ Artificial
 Silk ”” was a Swiss of Lausanne—George
Audemars, in 1855; but the first man who

1