Mercerized Cotton
the name applied to cotton fabrics after they have been subjected to a chemical process which gives to them a silky luster which remains permanent. The process was invented by John Mercer, an English chemist, in 1844, and it has been successively improved by others. The agents used are caustic soda or caustic potash, and the mercerizing is performed by machinery.
By treatment with acids it is possible to give to the fabrics all the external qualities of silk. MERCHANT LAW. See LAW.
MERCHANT MARINE. See SHIP- PING.
MERCIA (mur'shiä), the great Anglian kingdom of central England. The name, originally limited to the district around Tamworth and Lichfield and the Upper Trent valley, refers to a "march" or frontier that had to be defended against hostile Welshmen. The first settlements were most probably made in the second half of the 6th century, but Mercia first rose into real importance, and indeed grew into middle England, under the vigorous rule of Penda (626-655). His nephew, Wulfhere (659-675), pushed back the Northumbrians, and extended the MERCIER boundary S. to the Thames, and Ethelbald (716-755) spread his conquests round all the neighboring states. But Mercia were Offa (757-795) and Cenwulf (796-819), and after their time its power rapidly declined before the invasions of the Danes on the one side, and the spread of the West Saxon kingdom on the other. At length it became one of the great earldoms, and Elfgar, Leofric, Edwin, and Morcar retained at least the shadow of past power. ar-