MERCERIZING 



3740 



MERCHANT MARINE 



ite science, and constructed globes showing the 

 heavens and the earth, but he is remembered 

 chiefly for his invention of the so-called "Mer- 

 cator's projection" used in map drawing. In 

 maps drawn by this system the 'meridians and 

 parallels are represented as vertical and hori- 

 zontal lines, respectively, crossing each other at 

 right angles. This projection* does not lead to 

 great distortion in maps of countries near the 

 equator, but when applied to large areas it re- 

 sults in a disproportionate widening of lands or 

 seas distant from the equator. See MAP. 



MERCERIZING, mer' serizeing, a chemical 

 process used in the treatment of cotton fabrics, 

 whereby a lustrous silky effect is obtained. The 

 system was patented in 1850 by John Mercer 

 of Lancashire, England, from whom it derives 

 its name. Mercer discovered that caustic soda 

 or caustic potash changed the nature of cotton 

 fiber, making it shrink and become softer and 

 thicker, and causing it to take the dye more 

 readily, but no practical use was made of the 

 discovery at that time, on account of the ex- 

 cessive shrinkage of material. Later it was 

 found that by treating the cloth under tension 

 the shrinkage was avoided and the familiar, 

 silky appearance was obtained. In the process 

 of mercerizing the cloth the fibers are changed 

 from flattened, spiral tubes to straight translu- 

 cent ones, and. the lustrous effect is due to the 

 reflection of light from the smooth surface of 

 the fabric. Mercerized fabrics assume more 

 brilliant colors in dyeing than materials which 

 have not been so treated, and the best cotton, 

 Egyptian or Sea Island, attains the highest 

 luster. 



MERCHANT MARINE, mareen'. The seas 

 are the great highways through which inter- 

 course between the widely-separated nations of 

 the world takes place. The instrument by which 

 this international intercourse or trade is carried 

 on is the merchant marine. This is the name 

 given to the total number of commerce-carry- 

 ing ships a country possesses. History has 

 shown that those nations, or, in ancient times, 

 those cities, that possessed a large merchant 

 marine not only increased rapidly in wealth but 

 also attained great political power. 



British Merchant Marine. It was during the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth that England, the 

 greatest maritime power to-day, entered ear- 

 nestly upon the task of building up a merchant 

 marine and of founding a vast colonial empire. 

 Among the most important measures that have 

 helped to establish British sea supremacy were 

 the navigation acts enacted by Oliver Crom- 



well, especially that of 1661. It is reckoned 

 that at that time the merchant marine of all 

 the European nations amounted to about 2.,000,- 

 000 tons, of which nearly half belonged to the 

 Dutch, who possessed the largest ; about 500,000 

 tons were English. From that time onward 

 England forged ahead and outdistanced all ri- 

 vals, gaining the naval supremacy the British 

 now enjoy. 



England possessed in 1914 a merchant marine 

 that had a tonnage of over 21,500,000 tons out 

 of a total tonnage of 49,250,000 tons of shipping 

 owned by all the countries in the world, includ- 

 ing England. The United States occupied sec- 

 ond rank, with a merchant marine of 8,389,000 

 tons, but this includes the ships engaged in 

 coastwise trade and the vessels that ply on the 

 Great Lakes (see subheading, below) . The Ger- 

 man submarine campaign, entered upon with 

 great violence in the early part of 1917, in the 

 most desperate phase of the War of the Na- 

 tions, sank close to 1,000,000 tons of vessels a 

 month, the greater part British. 



The Merchant Marine of Germany. The sec- 

 ond largest merchant marine engaged in over- 

 seas trade in 1914 was that possessed by Ger- 

 many ; it amounted to 5,082,000 tons. This was 

 less than a quarter of the tonnage possessed by 

 England. The German merchant marine grew 

 from a very small beginning to its present size 

 since 1870. It was a splendid example of what 

 a determined people can accomplish when prop- 

 erly encouraged by government through sub- 

 sidies, railway rates and other means. It was 

 by the aid of its merchant marine that Ger- 

 many built up an extensive foreign trade which 

 nothing of less magnitude than the great War 

 of the Nations could affect. That struggle, due 

 to the blockade of -German coast waters, made 

 its merchant marine ineffective. 



The Merchant Marine of the United States. 

 The whole merchant marine of the United 

 States which was engaged in oversea trade in 

 1914 had a tonnage of 1,998,450 tons. This 

 ranked the United States as having the smallest 

 oversea merchant marine of any of the great 

 commercial nations. Before the War of the 

 Nations the foreign commerce of the United 

 States, imports and exports, amounted to about 

 4,000 million dollars a year; after the outbreak 

 of the war this total greatly increased, but only 

 about ten per cent of its foreign trade was car- 

 ried in American ships, the remainder being 

 transported in foreign vessels. In 1917, after 

 the United States joined the allies in the great 

 war, plans were at once prepared to increase the 



