queen of hearts -bound but not broken, tied but not twisted

As we have reached and passed the 150th anniversary of William Henry Perkin’s discovery of aniline dyes, it is appropriate to examine the life of the man who made this monumental discovery and to consider its widespread influence. William Henry Perkin was born in 1838 in the east end of London and studied chemistry as a young man under the tutelage of August Wilhelm Hofmann, the first director of the Royal College of Chemistry. His crude understanding of chemistry, like most chemists of the time, led him to believe he could produce the much sought after synthetic Quinine from aniline using a simple chemical process. It was through these experiments that Perkin, at the young age of 18, discovered a purple-hued sludge at the bottom of his beaker—not the Quinine he had expected to produce, but a substance of interest nonetheless. Perkin’s beautiful purple substance was able to dye silk and was not only colourfast and lightfast, but was standardised as well. Perkin also solved the persistent problem of the dye’s lack of solidity on fibres other than silk, namely cotton and wool by inventing mordanting procedures in 1857. Finding colour at the bottom of a chemist’s beaker was not a new phenomenon, but what made Perkin’s discovery unique was the insight and determination he possessed to make this dye both marketable and profitable.

Perkin immediately took out a patent and began to hunt for a market. His hunt was met with obstacles and indifference from many in the dye trade, people set in their ways and not willing to believe that a synthetic dye could replace the dyes of the natural world like indigo or madder. Perkin, however, persisted. With encouragement from Robert Puller, general manager at a prominent dye works in Scotland, and investment from his father and brother, Perkin proved his sceptics wrong. Soon chemists from all over were desperately trying to either replicate or find a new synthetic colour they could claim and mass-produce as their own. Aniline dye companies soon found they could make money by imitating the most popular colours and this resulted in bitter lawsuits over patents. Perkin, though not immune to the patent wars, had a gift for prevailing in most of these situations and his wealth grew. He continued to develop new colours including Britannia Violet, Perkin’s Green and a method to synthetically produce alizarin, previously produced from the madder plant. In 1873 Perkin & Sons was sold although Perkin never retired completely from the world of chemistry. He continued to contribute over 60 noteworthy scientific papers, including studies of magnetic rotary power and low-temperature combustion. His interest moved from colour to scent, and he was the first to produce synthetic coumarin and cinnamic acid. Since 1881 and up until Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 mauve was used on the British stamps and in 1906 Perkin was knighted for his contribution to modern science and the Perkin Medal was established. Today it is widely acknowledged as the highest honour in American industrial chemistry.

The discovery of aniline dyes was a monumental breakthrough that had far reaching effects on the fashion industry; the revolution of the synthetic dye trade led to a rise in the textile and dye industries, it created an increase and ease of garment production, and it allowed the masses to own the latest trendiest fashions. In addition its discovery triggered many other aspects of science and industry that have permeated into our modern world and led to wide spread consequences in various unforeseen fields.

The timing of Perkin’s discovery was impeccable, the industrial revolution had brought about growth in the textile industry beyond measure; from the flying shuttle that enabled weavers to weave faster, cotton mills, the spinning jenny the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel, the water frame the first powered textile machine, the spinning mule that allowed for greater control over the weaving process, the cotton gin that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber to the Jacquard Loom that wove complex and intricate designs. With all of this progress, with the industrial revolution at its height and change around every corner, the fashion industry was poised for transformation. The incentive that it took was Perkin’s discovery of Mauve and the birth of the synthetic dye industry.

Since the earliest recorded history (the Minoan civiliation1900 BC) of its discovery, the colour purple and all its variations has been steeped in thousands of years of Royal connotation. For centuries it was deemed the colour of the gods; discovered by Hercules and worn only by Royalty, it was considered lavish and opulent. In 1857 the color mauve was thought of no differently and when its synthetic sister was born, it, like most trends, started with the Royalty and moved vertically to the masses.
In France Empress Eugenie, Napoleon III’s young and very fashionable bride, was taken by the colour and with the combination of the heavy silks being manufactured in Lyon and the couture fashions of Paris was said to be “the single most influential woman in fashion” (pg 59). In 1858 the colour trend made its way to Britain; despite its beginnings in the Perkin lab, it took the French Empress and the copied version of the colour to start the craze on British soil. It is said that on a trip to Paris Queen Victoria was introduced to the colour by the Empress and her subsequent choice of attire at her daughter’s wedding as well as at the opening of the London Exhibition of 1862 secured that mauve would become the colour chosen en mass–“the train and body of her majesty’s dress was composed of rich mauve velvet, trimmed with three rows of lace; the corsage ornamented with diamonds and the celebrated Koh-i-noor brooch; the petticoat, mauve and silver moiré antique, trimmed with adept flounce of Honiton lace; the head-dress, a Royal diadem of diamonds and pearls.” (pg 61)

In responses to the Empress’ fashion sensibility, several new women’s magazines devoted to cooking and fashion were being published in France. They showcased the latest fashions while highlighting everything that Empress Eugenie was wearing. This created mass-market appeal allowing everyone in the country, from the wealthy to the poor, to see what she was wearing and of course the color mauve was desired. In England the Illustrated London News and Punch disseminated information about this wonderful new color, spreading the word and creating hype, whether good or bad reviews it resulted in the manufacture of more dye. The result with anything that is mass-produced is that there are knock offs effectively forcing the price down, in turn making it accessible to the masses. The advent of the locomotive also meant that items were now reaching more remote areas, circulation more wide spread and distribution faster than ever before.

Suddenly with vats and vats of cloth being dyed by both Perkin and others in the business it meant that more would be wearing various shades of purple. In the 1860’s sewing machine shops were being introduced and the garment business was moving out of the home and small shops and into large impersonal machine run shops thus bringing the price down and the time needed to create a garment lessened as production increased. In combination with the quickening of the textile industry and reams of fabric being woven, the skirts of the period grew exponentially –the crinoline, the hoop, full skirts, pagoda sleeves, and flounces galore adorned every dress and as the decade progressed the result was looped overskirts revealing underskirts that were the ultimate in self expression, over the next two decades this style resulted in the bustle. Other aniline colours soon followed that caused tidal waves in fashion. The arrival of François-Emmanuel Verguin’s fuchsine and Edward Chambers Nicholson’s roseine, Charles Girard and Georges de Laire aniline blue and Perkin’s mentor Hofmann contributed aniline violet infiltrated Perkin’s market. As the colours became brighter, richer, more colour fast, readily available and less expensive, it meant that suddenly the colour of a dress did not donate the position a woman held in society levelling the playing field slightly, the status of a woman would now have be decided by other means, whether it be the accoutrement she had adorning her body, or her hair. It resulted in women’s dress became over decorated with details such as ruffles, flounces, numerous layers, pleats, and top stitching.
“Dyes drove so many industries, that it’s easy to forget that they totally changed the way that the world looked. Before the synthetic dyes, you could argue that rich patterns of exotic colours were an elite thing. After them, everyone lived with such colours as mauve.” (Dr Robert Bud, Curator at the Science Museum in London England (Pg 98))

It is impossible to discuss the synthetic dye industry and William Henry Perkin without mentioning the effect of the dye trade on just about every aspect of modern life.
Although Perkin wasn’t the first to isolate aniline or even the first to invent a synthetic dye, that honour dates back to 1771 when puric acid was used to produce a strong yellow hue, there were drawbacks that prevented the colour from being put into production, but Perkin was the first to see the potential in the synthetic dye trade. He was a young and impetuous chemist and an astute businessman. He acknowledged the potential in turning coal tar, the sludge and waste by-product of the distillation of coal into gas used for lighting the streets, factories and homes of London into a viable and marketable product that could potentially and did make him a wealthy man.

What Perkin may not have anticipated was that almost immediately there was an explosion of young chemists as they discovered organic chemistry was exciting, profitable and of great practical use. These young chemists would soon unlock the structure of a great many other carbon compounds with direct benefits for medicine, perfumery, photography, synthetic fabrics such as rayon, synthetic rubber, nylon, they are used to tint photographs, and are used as artists pigments. Perkin could never have foreseen the multi-billion dollar petrochemical industry that was born from Mauvine. The same industry that currently runs the world economy, the industry that in the same breathe causes our illness and cures out diseases. A current process used to fight cancers has synthetic light reactive dyes that are selectively retained in cancerous tissues, in a couple of days there will be more dye in the tumour tissue that in the surrounding area, the area is then blasted with light from a laser and the tumour is destroyed. From the natural gasoline and diesel that run our cars to paint, hand creams /makeup, anything made of plastic, contact lenses, food preservatives, food colouring, hair dye, any artificial colour, synthetic fabrics, medicines, glue, and photographic processes, it is all made of a derivative of oil and owes a nod to Henry Perkin.

The discovery of the colour Mauve had implications far reaching what William Perkin’s and his contemporary’s expectations could ever have been; From the dissemination of the newest trends to the masses, the growth of the textile industry, the silhouettes of the late nineteenth century, the advances in modern science and modern medicine, to the vast giant that is the modern oil and petro-chemical industry. It is somewhat Ironic that Perkins presence and relevance is largely forgotten, his grave unmarked and unknown yet the implications of the discovery have yet to be completely realised. We are forever indebted to Perkin, the oil industry and all its derivates for the modern world in which we live.