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corresponding members, Mr. Benjamin Dockray and Pro- 
fessor A. D. Bache. One new honorary and two corre- 
sponding members have been elected during the year. 
Mr. Mercer was a remarkable instance of a self-made man. 
Beginning the world without any advantages derived from 
education or easy circumstances, by indomitable energy and 
perseverance he attained a considerable position both as a 
man of science and a manufacturer. The best portion of 
his life was devoted to calico printing, to the advancement 
of which he contributed by the invention of many useful 
and ingenious processes. He was born February 21st, 1791, 
at Great Harwood, near Accrington. His father had a small 
cotton factory, and he himself worked in early youth at the 
loom. In 1807, being then 16 years old, he was much struck 
by the bright colour of a child’s dress, which was an orange 
dyed with annotto. The wish to dye this and similar 
colours possessed him, but he did not know how to begin. 
In an outline of his life, drawn up by Mr. Mercer for his 
sons, he says: — “How to begin was my difficulty. There 
was no fancy dyer in our village ; I had no acquaintance 
with any one who knew anything of dyeing, and I had no 
books that would help me. The villagers wore mostly dyed 
cotton at that time, and got them dyed at Blackburn. I 
therefore went to a druggist at Blackburn, and got a little 
of all the kinds of stuffs the dyers used, with the names 
written on each. Weavers at this time having plenty of 
cotton fents, I was thus well provided with all that was 
required, and by ringing changes and labelling all the results 
I was able to dye all the colours then in use. Not having 
convenience where I lived, I took a man to join me, who had 
a sufficient building for a dyehouse, with water near, and 
we dyed for the inhabitants of Great Harwood and the sur- 
rounding villages.” From 1809-10 Mr. Mercer was employed 
in the works of Mr. Fort, calico printer, at Oakenshaw, near 
Harwood. During the following years he devoted himself 
