Synthetic aniline dye (mauveine)
Tinte sintético de anilina (malveína)
- Date
- 1856 · confidence high
- Place
- London (Cable Street, East End), England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Henry Perkin
- People
- 👤 William Perkin1838–1907
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The first synthetic dye, discovered by chance at the age of 18 while trying to synthesise quinine from coal tar. It founded the organic chemical industry and the mauve fashion craze.
Perkin set up the factory at Greenford Green (Harrow) in 1857; the discovery was made in his home laboratory in Cable Street.
What it led to
- The synthetic dye industry and German dominance (BASF, Bayer, Hoechst)
- Industrial and pharmaceutical organic chemistry (aspirin, salvarsan)
- The ruin of natural dyes (Indian indigo, French madder)
- The industrial research laboratory as an institution
Built on
- Discovery of aniline1826-1843
- Gas lighting (coal tar)
- Isolation of aniline (Runge, 1834; Hofmann)
- Kekulé's structural chemistry
Made possible
- Diazotisation and the first azo dyes1858-1863
- Fuchsine (magenta)1859
- Synthetic alizarin1868
- Synthetic alizarin and indigo
- Bacteriological staining (Koch, Ehrlich)
- Synthetic drugs
- Orthochromatic photography