William Perkin (1838-1907)

Sir William Henry Perkin FRS (March 12, 1838 – July 14, 1907) was an English chemist best known for his discovery, at the age of 18, of the first aniline dye, mauveine. The Fellowship of the Royal Society was founded in 1660. ... is the 71st day of the year (72nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. ... Mauveine, also known as aniline purple, was the first synthetic organic dye. ...

Early years

William Henry Perkin was born in East End of London, the youngest of seven children. His father was a successful carpenter. His mother, Sarah, was of Scottish descent but moved to East London as a child. He was baptised in the parish church of St. Paul's on The Highway, which had been connected to such luminaries as James Cook, Jane Randolf (mother of Thomas Jefferson) and John Wesley. He attended the City of London School where he was taught by Thomas Hall who fostered his scientific talent and encouraged him to pursue a chemical career. The East End of London, known locally as the East End, is an area, with no formal authority or boundaries, that spans a number of administative districts of London in England. ... St. ... The Highway is a mile-long road in the East End of London, with several historic landmarks nearby. ... Blue plaque for Captain James Cook Captain James Cook FRS RN (27 October 1728 (O.S.) – 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... John Wesley (June 28 [O.S. June 17] 1703 – March 2, 1791) was an eighteenth-century Anglican minister and Christian theologian who was an early leader in the Methodist movement. ...

Discovery of mauveine

In 1853, at the precocious age of 15, Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London (now part of Imperial College London), where he began his studies under the illustrious August Wilhelm von Hofmann. At this time, chemistry was still in a quite primitive state. Although atomic theory was accepted, the major elements discovered, and techniques to analyze the proportions of the elements in many compounds were in place, it was still a difficult proposition to determine the arrangement of the elements in compounds. Hofmann had published a hypothesis on how it might be possible to synthesize quinine, an expensive natural product in much demand for the treatment of malaria. Perkin, who had by then become one of Hofmann's assistants, embarked on a series of experiments to try to achieve this end. During the Easter break in 1856, when Hofmann had returned for a visit to his native Germany, Perkin tried some further experiments in his crude laboratory in his apartment on the top floor of his home in Cable Street in East London. It was here that he made his great discovery, that aniline could be partly transformed into a crude mixture that when extracted with alcohol gave an intense purple colour. Perkin, who had an interest in painting and photography, immediately became interested in the result, and carried out further trials with his friend Arthur Church and his brother Thomas. Since this was off the track of the quinine work he had been assigned, they carried out the experiments in a hut in Perkin's garden, in secret from Hofmann. A blue plaque marks the site of their home in Cable Street, by the junction with St David Lane (link to Google Earth placemark). Imperial College London (also known as Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London. ... August Wilhelm von Hofmann (April 8, 1818 _ May 5, 1892) was a German chemist. ... Quinine (IPA: ) is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic (fever-reducing), antimalarial, analgesic (painkilling), and anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Easter, the Sunday of... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. ... A blue plaque showing information about The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey in Torquay. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Blue plaque in Cable Street

They satisfied themselves that they might be able to scale up the discovery and commercialize it as a dye, which they called mauveine. Their initial experiments indicated that it dyed silk in a way that was stable against washing and light. They sent some samples to a dye works in Perth, Scotland, and received a very promising reply from the general manager of the company, Robert Pullar. Perkin filed for a patent in August, 1856, while he was still only 18. At the time, all dyes in use for colouring cloth were extracts of natural products, and many of them were expensive and labour-intensive to produce. Many were especially wanting in terms of stability, or fastness. The colour purple, which had been used since ancient times as a mark of aristocracy and prestige, was especially expensive and difficult -- known as Tyrian purple, it came from the glandular mucus of certain molluscs. The process to produce it was variable and complicated, so Perkin and his brother understood that they were onto a possible substitute that could be made into a commercial success. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (728x717, 258 KB) Summary Subject: Blue plaque commemorating William Henry Perkin Location: Cable Street, London, near junction with King David Lane Date: 17 Sept 2005 Photographer: Richard Allen Technical summary: digital photograph Post-production: perpective adjusted; vertical stretch; cropped; converted to... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (728x717, 258 KB) Summary Subject: Blue plaque commemorating William Henry Perkin Location: Cable Street, London, near junction with King David Lane Date: 17 Sept 2005 Photographer: Richard Allen Technical summary: digital photograph Post-production: perpective adjusted; vertical stretch; cropped; converted to... Mauveine, also known as aniline purple, was the first synthetic organic dye. ... Murex brandaris, also known as the Spiny dye-murex The chemical structure of 6,6′-dibromoindigo, the main component of Tyrian Purple A space-filling model of 6,6′-dibromoindigo Tyrian purple (Greek: , porphura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye made by the...

Perkin could not have chosen a better time or place for his discovery. England was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, largely driven by advances in the production of textiles, the science of chemistry had advanced to the point that it could have a major impact on industrial processes and coal tar, the major source of his raw material was being produced in abundance as a waste product of the production of coal gas and coke. The Industrial Revolution was a major shift of technological, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions that occurred in the late 18th century and early 19th century in some Western countries. ... Coal tar is the liquid by-product of the distillation of coal to make coke. ...

Inventing the dye was one thing, raising the capital, manufacturing it in quantity cheaply, adapting it to cotton, getting acceptance from commercial dyers, and creating demand for it in the public was something else. Perkin was active in all of these areas. In a whirlwind of activity, he got his father to put up the capital, his brothers to partner in the creation of a factory, he invented a mordant for cotton, became a one man technical service operation, and publicized it in the marketplace. He was helped in the latter by the adoption of a similar colour in France by Napoleon's Empress Eugénie and Queen Victoria, and by the adoption of the fabric-hungry crinoline, or hooped-skirt. Everything seemed to "fall into place" through hard work and a little luck too. He became rich. Maria Eugenia Ignacia Augustina Palafox de Guzmán Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, 9th Countess de Teba, popularly known as Eugénie de Montijo (May 5, 1826 – July 11, 1920) was Empress Consort of France (1853-1871), the wife of Napoléon III. The last Empress of France was born in Granada... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901. ... crinoline patented Cutaway view of a crinoline, Punch magazine, August 1856 Sequence of posed joke photographs of five stages of putting on a crinoline, ca. ...

The true significance of Perkin's work was in showing that science and common everyday business and consumerism could co-exist. Even at the age of 18, he demonstrated chemistry could be extremely lucrative, for many scientists at that time were concerned solely with academia. Consumerism is a term that can mean either the opposite of anti-consumerism or of producerism. ...

After Perkin's discovery, innumerable new aniline dyes appeared (some discovered by Perkin himself), and the factories required to produce them were constructed all across Europe, launching what amounted to an international trade war in fabrics and dyes. A trade war refers to two or more nations raising or creating tariffs or other trade barriers on each other in retaliation for other trade barriers. ...

Later years

Blue plaque in Greenford, near the Union canal

William Perkin continued active research in organic chemistry for the rest of his life. He discovered and marketed other synthetic dyes including Britannia Violet and Perkin's Green. He later found syntheses for coumarin, one of the first synthetic perfumes, and cinnamic acid, this latter preparation becoming known as the Perkin reaction. Local lore has it that the colour of the nearby Grand Union Canal changed from week to week depending on the activity of Perkin's dyeworks. In 1869, Perkin found a method to commercially produce alizarin, a brilliant red dye then produced from the madder plant, from anthracene, but the German chemical company BASF patented the same process one day before he did. Over the next few years, Perkin found his research and development efforts increasingly eclipsed by the German chemical industry, and in 1874, he sold his factory and retired from business, already a very wealthy man. Image File history File links Perkin_factory. ... Image File history File links Perkin_factory. ... Coumarin is a chemical compound found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean, woodruff, and bison grass. ... Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell. ... Cinnamic acid has the formula C6H5CHCHCOOH and is an odorless white crystalline acid, which is slightly soluble in water. ... The Perkin reaction is a chemical reaction developed by William Perkin that can be used to make cinnamic acids by the aldol condensation of aromatic aldehydes and acid anhydrides in the presence of an alkali salt of the acid. ... The canal at Braunston The Grand Union Canal is a canal in England and part of the British canal system. ... Molecular structure of alizarin Alizarin, or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone or mordant red, is the red dye originally derived from the root of the madder plant. ... Species See text. ... In chemistry, anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three benzene rings derived from coal-tar. ... This article is about the German chemical company. ...

Perkin received many honors in his lifetime. In 1879, he received the Royal Society's Royal Medal, and then, in 1889, its Davy Medal. The Perkin Medal was established in 1906 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of mauveine. Today it is widely acknowledged as the highest honour in American industrial chemistry and has been awarded annually by the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry to many inspiring and gifted chemists. The premises of The Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... The Royal Medals of the Royal Society of London were established by King George IV. They were further supported with certain changes to their conditions, by King William IV and Queen Victoria. ... The Davy Medal is a bronze medal that has been awarded annually by the Royal Society in London since 1887. ... The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in America for an innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development. ... Mauveine, also known as aniline purple, was the first synthetic organic dye. ... The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a learned society set up in 1881 to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit.[1]. The headquarters are in Belgrave square, London, but there are also offices in the USA, Canada and Australia. ...

He died in 1907 of pneumonia and appendicitis.

References

Mauve

• Garfield, Simon Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World, ISBN 0-393-02005-3 (2000).

  Garfield relates how William Perkin's accidental discovery of the color mauve – and a method to mass-produce it – created new interest in the industrial applications of chemistry research.

• Travis, Anthony S. "Perkin, Sir William Henry (1838-1907)" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited C. Mathew et al. Oxford University Press: 2004. ISBN 0-19-861411-X.
• Holme I (2006). "Sir William Henry Perkin: a review of his life, work and legacy". Coloration Technology 122 (5): 235-251. DOI:10.1111/j.1478-4408.2006.00041.x. 
• Brightman R. (1956). "Perkin and the Dyestuffs Industry in Britain". Nature 177 (4514): 805-856. DOI:10.1038/177815a0.