Page 98

Mercer's Patent. 
XII.-Professor HFmts", Munich, Ministerial Councillor, &c. 
XIII.-GEoRGE FAWKE KExP, Esq., 34 Spital Square, Silk Manufacturer. 
XIV.-Count VON HARRACK. 
XV.-HerrVAN HOEGARDEN, Brussels, Manufacturer and Member of the Chamber 
of Commerce. 
XVL-Hon. Colonel ANSON, 25 Hill Street, Berkeley Square. 
XVII.-M. VAN DE WEYER, London, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo-
tentiary of his Majesty the King of the Belgians. 
XVIII.-H. TucKmR, Esq., 30 Gresham Street. 
XIX.-Professor BoLzEY (of Switzerland), London, Head Commissioner of Switzer-
land in London. 
XX.-WILLIAM FELKIN, Esq., Mayor of Nottingham, the Park, Nottingham, 
Hosiery Manufacturer. 
XXI.-Lord WRARNCLIFFE, 28 Lower Brook Street. 
XXII.-Hon. HORACE GREELEY, Editor of the New York Tribune. 
XXIII.-Duc de LuYNEs, Paris, Member of the Institute, &c. 
XXIV.-Lord DE MAuLEY, 21 St. James's Place. 
XXV.-The Duke of ARGYLL, Stafford House, St. James's. 
XXVI.-The CHEVALIER DE BURG, Vienna, Director of the Imperial Polytechnic
Institute, Vice-President of the Society of Arts and Manufactures, and Member
of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna. 
XXVII.-Signor PIETRO PiSTR uci, Rome, Artist. 
XXVIII.-Sefior DON JOACQUim ALFONso, Madrid, Director of the Conservatory
of 
Arts in Madrid. 
XXIX.-Lord CANNING, 16 Grosvenor Square. 
XXX.-Herr Von VIEDBAN, Berlin, President of the Zollverein Commission for
the Exhibition of 1851. 
Of course all their proceedings are for the present confidential and secret.
But it is well known that the instructions issued by the Commission to them
have been strictly in accordance with the general principles already laid
down 
and published. Consequently individual competition will be avoided, and the
medals will be given for general excellence. Applying these principles, it
may 
be anticipated that the distribution will be very wide and general. It is
now 
quite obvious that the medals are the only mistake in the whole proceedings
of the Exhibition; still they must be awarded, and the object, no doubt,
will 
be to award them so as to neutralise all the unpleasant results, easily to
be 
foreseen, as much as possible. 
MERCERS PATENT. 
ONE of the most remarkable processes which the Exhibition is likely to 
bring into instant public notice, is that by which Mr. Mercer improves cotton
and other woven fabrics, in rendering them more compact and consequently
finer, and by making them more susceptible of developing brilliant colours.
We give specimens of the effects produced for Messrs. Liddiard, by Messrs.
Iargreaves, and hope to follow them by illustrations of other colours. One
piece of the muslin has been dyed in the usual way, the other has undergone
Mr. Mercer's process, which he thus describes :h                     r 
ImIrovements in the mreparation of Cotton and other Fabrics end Fibrous Materials.
My invention consists in subjecting vegetable fabrics and fibrous materials
(cot- 
ton, flax, &c.), either in the raw or manufactured state, to the action
of caustic soda 
or caustic potash, dilute sulphuric acid or chloride of zinc, of a strength
and tempera- 
ture sufficient to produce the new effects, and to give the new properties
to them 
which I have hereafter described. The mode I adopt is as follows : 
I pass the cloth through a padding machine charged with caustic soda or caustic
potash, at 60 or 70 degrees Twaddle's hydrometer, at a common temperatrat
(say) 
60 degrees Fahrenheit or under, and without drying the cloth wash it in water;
then 
pass through dilute sulphuric acid and wash again. Or I run the cloth over
and 
under a series of rollers in a cistern with caustic soda or caustic potash,
at from 40 to 
60 degrees Twaddle's hydrometer, at the common temperature of the atmosphere,
the 
last two rollers being set so as to squeeze the excess of soda or potash
back into the 
cistern; the cloth then passes over and under rollers placed in a series
of cisterns 
charged at the commencement of the operation with water only, so that at
the last