Synthetic ultramarine
Azul ultramar sintético
- Date
- 1826 · confidence medium
- Place
- France
- Credited to
- Jean-Baptiste Guimet
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Guimet effectively wins the race to artificially produce ultramarine blue, until then extracted from costly lapis lazuli, by developing a synthesis process he keeps secret.
The Société pour l'Encouragement d'Industrie had offered a 6,000-franc prize in 1824 for achieving this; Guimet kept his method secret, while German chemist Christian Gmelin developed and published a similar process in 1828.
What it led to
- Drastic reduction in the cost of ultramarine pigment
- European synthetic pigment industry
- Widespread use of ultramarine in painting and dyeing