Discovered by serendipity
The Invention of the Color Purple
It was one of those discoveries by serendipity — or by mistake, as those with a sharp tongue claim — that are strewn throughout the history of science.
In 1856, William Henry Perkin was only 18 years old and a student at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. In his makeshift laboratory at home, he tried to synthesize quinine, whose effectiveness as an anti-malaria drug was well documented at the time. As it was costly to extract the alkaloid from the bark of the cinchona tree, which grows mainly in South America, the race for the synthesis was in full swing.
It was one of those discoveries by serendipity — or by mistake, as those with a sharp tongue claim — that are strewn throughout the history of science. Perkin’s attempt to synthesize quinine by mixing aniline, derived from coal tar, with other chemical compounds failed. What he obtained from the precipitation was a deep purple substance that was soluble in water and alcohol. He dipped a piece of silk into it and discovered that it had dyeing properties. Perkin had just invented the first synthetic dye, mauveine — or Tyrian purple, as he initially called it, in reference to the color whose origin goes back to Phoenician antiquity.
The discovery created quite a stir. Until then, mauve dye could only be produced naturally from the secretion of the Murex sea snails that were widespread in the region of Tyre (now Lebanon). It was reported that 10,000 to 12,000 snails were required to produce one and a half grams of purple dye. Because it was so costly to produce, it’s understandable how the color came to symbolize power and wealth, from Cleopatra to Julius Caesar, and, several centuries later, Henri VIII who made it illegal for anyone but himself to wear it. With his discovery, Perkin democratized the color mauve, which became all the rage in the London and Paris fashion circles at the time.
Well aware of the importance of his invention, the young man had mauveine patented and founded the first factory for synthetic dyes. In the 1870s, it produced hundreds of thousands of dyes annually. Viewed as the father of industrial chemistry, Perkin inspired numerous chemists who went on to invent new pigments based on aniline, such as fuchsine, azuline, or aniline blue.
The popularity of mauve hasn’t faded a bit today. In 2018, Pantone chose “Ultra-Violet” as its color of the year, praising its “originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking.” No doubt that some of the credit is due to William Henry Perkin.
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Annalisa Berbieri, “The invention of the colour purple”, The Guardian (March 12, 2015).
Regina Lee Blaszczyk, The Color Revolution, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2012.
Simon Garfield, Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour that Changed the World, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2018.
It was one of those discoveries by serendipity — or by mistake, as those with a sharp tongue claim — that are strewn throughout the history of science. Perkin’s attempt to synthesize quinine by mixing aniline, derived from coal tar, with other chemical compounds failed. What he obtained from the precipitation was a deep purple substance that was soluble in water and alcohol. He dipped a piece of silk into it and discovered that it had dyeing properties. Perkin had just invented the first synthetic dye, mauveine — or Tyrian purple, as he initially called it, in reference to the color whose origin goes back to Phoenician antiquity.
The discovery created quite a stir. Until then, mauve dye could only be produced naturally from the secretion of the Murex sea snails that were widespread in the region of Tyre (now Lebanon). It was reported that 10,000 to 12,000 snails were required to produce one and a half grams of purple dye. Because it was so costly to produce, it’s understandable how the color came to symbolize power and wealth, from Cleopatra to Julius Caesar, and, several centuries later, Henri VIII who made it illegal for anyone but himself to wear it. With his discovery, Perkin democratized the color mauve, which became all the rage in the London and Paris fashion circles at the time.
Well aware of the importance of his invention, the young man had mauveine patented and founded the first factory for synthetic dyes. In the 1870s, it produced hundreds of thousands of dyes annually. Viewed as the father of industrial chemistry, Perkin inspired numerous chemists who went on to invent new pigments based on aniline, such as fuchsine, azuline, or aniline blue.
The popularity of mauve hasn’t faded a bit today. In 2018, Pantone chose “Ultra-Violet” as its color of the year, praising its “originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking.” No doubt that some of the credit is due to William Henry Perkin.
—
Annalisa Berbieri, “The invention of the colour purple”, The Guardian (March 12, 2015).
Regina Lee Blaszczyk, The Color Revolution, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2012.
Simon Garfield, Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour that Changed the World, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2018.