1856

Perkin’s Mauve

William Henry Perkin (1838–1907)

William Henry Perkin was a young Englishman in just the right place at just the right time. He was still in his teens when he began studying at London’s Royal College of Chemistry under German chemist August von Hofmann, who challenged him to synthesize quinine (much in demand at the time for the treatment of malaria) from inexpensive starting materials. Given the state of organic chemistry at the time, neither Hofmann nor Perkin could have known what they were getting themselves into. Quinine was much more complicated than it looked: its structure wasn’t worked out for another fifty years, and its synthesis did not come about for decades after that.

So it almost goes without saying that Perkin had little success synthesizing one of the most valuable medicines of his day from scratch. Experiments in his home laboratory, however, fared much better. In 1856, he found that he could produce a gorgeous purple compound from aniline, a component of coal tar, and he immediately saw its possibilities as a dye and pigment. While officially working on the doomed quinine synthesis at the college, Perkin began experimenting in his backyard with the help of his brother and a friend, looking for ways to increase the yield and purity of the world’s first artificial dye, which he named mauveine, now also known as Perkin’s mauve. He tested it on fabrics and other substances, found that it was colorfast (unlike many of the naturally occurring dyes then in use), and became convinced it had great commercial potential.

He was right. Perkin patented his discovery, set up his own factory with help from his family—although his professor advised against it—and was soon the only supplier of what became the most fashionable dyestuff in Europe. The Industrial Revolution had created both a huge textile sector and a lot of coal tar (from the coal-gas industry), and Perkin became rich by connecting the two with his chemical skills. He went on to discover many other dyes, and the chemistry behind them is still used in coloring agents today. In many ways, he helped create the modern chemical industry.

A 1906 portrait of Perkin, holding a piece of the mauve-dyed cloth that made him famous.