Mercerisation of cotton
Mercerización del algodón
- Date
- 1844 · confidence high
- Place
- Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- John Mercer (with Horace Lowe's tension treatment, 1890)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Treatment of cotton with caustic soda that swells the fibre and increases its strength and affinity for dyes. With the fibre held under tension, from 1890, it also gives a permanent silky lustre.
Mercer patented the process in 1850 (after his 1844 discovery) and the soda only swelled and shrank the cloth; the lustre comes from the tension method patented by Lowe in 1890, which drove its commercial spread.
What it led to
- sewing thread and silk-like glossy cotton
- better dyeability and lower dye consumption
- basis of modern fine-finish cotton (shirtings, knits)