British chemist Sir William Henry Perkin created the first synthetic dye (aniline purple, or mauveine) in 1856.
Recognizing its commercial potential, he patented his discovery and set about manufacturing it.
Perkin's continued research went on to find other aniline dye colors and synthetic scents.
Background
William Henry Perkin was born in London on March 12, 1838.
His father was a builder, and the family lived in fairly prosperous circumstances in an otherwise rather disreputable neighborhood in London's East End.
Perkin's father balked at first, hoping to convince his bright young son to follow his older brother's footsteps into the more respectable field of architecture, but pressure from Hall and the wishes of his son won out.
Education
William Henry Perkin's talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by Perkin's teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution.
Those speeches fired the young chemist's enthusiasm further, and he became determined to attend the Royal College of Chemistry.
Thus, when Hofmann made some passing comments about the desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it is unsurprising that his star pupil was moved to take up the challenge. During his Easter vacation from school in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the top floor of his family's house.
Career
At the time of Perkin's enrollment, the Royal College of Chemistry was headed by noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann.
Not long after that, Perkins made the discovery that would render him both famous and wealthy. First Synthetic Dye Created by Accident
In 1856, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria.
Derived from the bark of the cinchona tree native to South America, demand for the drug was surpassing the available supply.
(Not incidentally, England was also still embroiled in the Crimean War at the time).
Despite his best efforts, however, he did not end up with quinine.
Luckily, Perkin's scientific training and nature prompted him to investigate the substance further.
And proving the truth of famed scientist Louis Pasteur's words, "chance favors only the prepared mind, " Perkin saw the potential of his unexpected find. Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as lichens, mollusks, bat guano, and Madder root.
Some of these, such as guano, were unappealing on principle; others, such as the glandular mucus of snails, were difficult to obtain and outrageously expensive.
Further, natural dyes tended to be muddy in hue and fade quickly.
It was against this backdrop that Perkin's discovery was made. Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to color fabric, thus making it the world's first synthetic dye.
Just as rapidly realizing the significance of this breakthrough, he lost no time in patenting it.
But perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin's reactions to his find was his nearly instant recognition of the commercial possibilities the new dye presented. Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple (also called aniline purple and mauveine), but it later became commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the color violet).
Already historic in its very founding, the company received an unexpected commercial boost from the Empress Eugenie of France when she decided the new color flattered her.
In short order, mauve was the necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies of France.
The dye was bold and fast, and the public clamored for more. Other Achievements and Awards
Although Perkin's fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first discovery, the chemist continued his research.
Among the other dyes he developed and introduced were aniline red (1859), aniline black (1863), and alkalate magenta (1864).
In the late 18606, Britannia Violet and Perkin's Green were added to the line.
Then, in 1869, Perkin succeeded in improving on the work of German chemists Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann by synthesizing a commercially viable version of alizarin (the Germans' process having been too expensive to be feasible), the vibrant red shade previously derived from the Madder root.
By the 18706, however, Germany had begun to pull ahead in the dye industry and Perkin's fertile mind was moving in other directions.
In 1874, he sold the factory to Brooke, Simpson, and Spiller and retired from the chemical manufacturing business at the age of 36.
It is important to note that Perkin's synthetic dye discoveries had ramifications far beyond the merely decorative.
The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways.
Perkin also spent time researching more serious matters, studying, for instance, the relationship between chemical constitution and rotation of the plane of polarization in a magnetic field.
The result of that research was his articulation of a law that described the variation of the investigated rotation in bodies belonging to homologous series, and eventually won him a Davy Medal from the Royal Society in 1889.
Perkin remained active in his field in other ways, such as being secretary of the Chemical Society in 1869, and president in 1883.
He also sat on the boards of several scientific journals.
His many accolades (in addition to the Davy Medal) include the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1879, the Longstaff Medal of the Chemical Society in 1889, and the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts in 1890.
In 1906, there was an international celebration of Perkin's mauve discovery, during which he traveled to the United States.
There, he was awarded the inaugural SCI Perkin Medal, an honor that came to be regarded as the highest possible in the American chemical industry.
Nonetheless, he had captured the attention and imagination of the world.
"In the spring of 1856, 18–year–old William Henry Perkin was in his lab attempting to synthesize quinine.
Instead, he created the first synthetic dyestuff: aniline purple, or mauve.
"Perkin died on July 14, 1907, in Sudbury, England.
Like his father before him, he won the Davy Medal from the Royal Society (1904), just three years before the man who discovered both a substance and an industry passed away.
Achievements
Connections
William Henry Perkin married Jemima Harriet in 1859, which resulted in two sons, (William Henry Perkin, Jr. and Arthur George Perkin). Perkin's second marriage was in 1866, to Alexandrine Caroline, which resulted in one son (Frederick Mollwo Perkin) and four daughters. All three sons became chemists.