Sir William Henry Perkin (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. March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in Leap years). ... | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... July 14 is the 195th day (196th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 170 days remaining. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid... Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene (C6H5NH2) is an organic chemical compound which is a primary aromatic amine consisting of a benzene ring and an amino group. ... 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 a private school on Commercial Road, and was a gifted student. The East End of London, known locally as the East End, is part of London in the United Kingdom. ... St. ... The Highway is a mile-long road in the East End of London, with several historic landmarks nearby. ... James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 N.S. – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. ... John Wesley (June 17, 1703–March 2, 1791) was an 18th-century Anglican clergyman and Christian theologian who was an early leader in the Methodist movement. ... Commercial Road (A13) in the East End of London runs from Gardeners Corner to Burdett Road where is becomes the East India Dock Road. ...

The discovery

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 theory 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 is a prestigious British academic institution focussing on science, engineering and medicine, complemented by a business school. ... August Wilhelm von Hofmann (April 8, 1818 _ May 5, 1892) was a German chemist. ... Quinine, is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic, anti-malarial with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. ... Red blood cell infected with Malaria, derived from mala aria (Medieval Italian for bad air) and formerly called ague or marsh fever in English, is an infectious disease which causes about 350-500 million infections with humans and approximately 1. ... This article is about the Christian festival. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene (C6H5NH2) is an organic chemical compound which is a primary aromatic amine consisting of a benzene ring and an amino group. ... 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. ... Tyrian purple is a purple dye made in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre from a secretion of Spiny Dye-Murex (Murex brandaris), a marine snail. ...

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. A Watt steam engine in Madrid. ... 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 eminent Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June, 1837, and Empress of India from 1 January, 1877, until her death in 1901. ... Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Crinoline crinoline patented Cutaway view of a crinoline, Punch magazine, August 1856 Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. ...

Blue plaque in Greenford, near the Union canal

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. Image File history File links Perkin_factory. ... Image File history File links Perkin_factory. ... Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. ...

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

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. 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 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. ... BASF AG (NYSE: BF, LSE: BFA) is a German chemical company and the biggest chemical company in the world. ...

Perkin received many honors in his lifetime. 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 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 0393020053 (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 019861411X.