During the mid-to-late 1800s there were a number of important advances in the textiles industry: the inventions of the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, the water frame spinner, and the mechanical loom all helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution. However, none of these inventions would have had as great an impact as they did without similar advances in the textiles themselves--for example, the development of new materials and methods for processing these materials. One of the most important contributors to this field was John Mercer, the father of textile chemistry.

Mercer grew up in Lancashire, England--an area that would soon become the hub of the English textile industry. He first entered that industry as a boy, working as a bobbin-winder and, later, as a weaver. At the age of sixteen he became drawn to the art of dyeing. He set up a small dye laboratory in the Mercer...