Mauve

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by Simon Garfield

Many of the archival documents relating to William Perkin are the property of his great, great grandchildren Helen Beaufoy and Michael Kirkpatrick, and I would like to thank them for their encouragement with my research and the supply of photographs.

  I owe a debt also to Penny Feltham and Jean Horsfall at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester, where the Perkin documents (the Kirkpatrick Collection) are housed, and to Robert Bud for his suggestions and contacts, Leo Slater and colleagues at the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry in Philadelphia, Penny Netherwood at Yorkshire Chemicals, Anne Barrett of the Imperial College archive department, Sarah Bürge at the Colour Museum, Bradford, and the helpful staffs of the Bodeleian Library, Oxford, the London Library, Imperial College Library and the Radcliffe Science Library, Cambridge.

  Professor Bill Griffith at Imperial and Andrew Bud read the manuscript and made very helpful suggestions.

  This book would also have been the poorer without Brad and Joy Auerbach, Spencer Pack, William Brock, Luke Vinten, Ted Benfey and Roald Hoffmann.

  Pat Kavanagh, Rosemary Scoular and Vanessa Kearns at PFD offered their normal level of skilled counsel and enthusiasm. My editor, Julian Loose, has been unfailingly inspiring and supportive, and I am also grateful to his assistant Carrie O’Grady for her perceptive suggestions and photo research.

  The recipe for the microscale synthesis of mauve is adapted, with kind permission, from the work of Rhonda L. Scaccia, David Coughlin and David W. Ball, Department of Chemistry, Cleveland State University, published in Journal of Chemical Education, Volume 75, No 6, June 1998.

  In addition to the documents listed in the bibliography, I have referred to a number of newspaper articles, predominantly from the time of the jubilee and the centenary of the discovery of mauve (1856 and 1906). Recent issues of the Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists and New Scientist have also been useful.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Abbreviations

  BJHS British Journal for the History of Science

  JSA Journal of the Society of Arts

  JSDC Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists

  Documents and Journals

  From the Kirkpatrick Collection at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester:

  Letter from A. W. Hofmann to Perkin, Royal College of Chemistry, 23 October 1856

  Letters from R. Pullar to Perkin, Mill Street Dye Works, Perth, 12 June 1856, 14 January 1857

  Letter from J. Pullar to Perkin, Keirfield, Bridge of Allan, 14 May 1857

  Letter from L. Pasteur to Perkin, Ecole Normal Supérieure, 5 September 1860

  Letters from H. Caro to Perkin, Mannheim, 10 December 1881, 29 May 1891, 28 June 1906; Freiburg, 31 May 1885

  Letter from H. Caro to Lady Perkin, Mannheim, 19 January 1908

  Patent specification No 1984, 26 August 1856

  Letters from W. H. Perkin Jnr to Perkin, Fair View, Fallowfield, 21 February and 10 March 1906

  Draft speech by C. Liebermann, Royal Institution, 26 July 1906

  Souvenir of Perkin’s visit to America, containing newspaper cutting and photographs

  Letter from J. W. Bruhl to Lady Perkin, 20 November 1907

  Perkin’s early science lecture notes at City of London School, 1851–2

  Perkin’s laboratory notebook, 1890–93

  Perkin’s notes written on RMS Umbria, September 1906

  Letter from Perkin to H. Caro, The Chestnuts, Sudbury, 25 May 1891

  Hymns for Perkin’s funeral service, 21 July 1907

  Chemical Society Appeal for the Perkin Memorial Fund

  Perkin and T. D. Perkin reply to the Bill of Complaint of Brooke, Simpson and Spiller, 2 December 1874

  Press cutting relating to jubilee celebrations and various obituaries of Perkin and Lady Perkin, 1906 and 1907

  Perkin’s own copy of the official book commemorating the Jubilee, 1906

  Perkin’s notebook recording the discovery of mauve, 1856, courtesy of the City of London School

  Perkin family trees, undated

  Chemical Society booklet on the life and work of W. H. Perkin Jnr

  Various scrolls, illuminated tributes, honorary degrees and medals awarded to Perkin in 1906

  Barrett, Anne, Perkin’s Green, The Glaxo Volume, pp. 43–47,1956

  Benfey, Theodor, ‘The Editor’s Safari: Jerusalem’s Edelstein Centre and Three Anniversaries’, Beckman Centre News, Summer 1992

  Bentley, Jonathan, ‘The Work in England of A. W. von Hofmann, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry 1845–65’, Thesis for the Degree of Master of Science in the History of Science, University of Leicester, 1969

  Berrie, John, Specimens Illustrating New Methods of Dyeing and Finishing Silk, Great Exhibition Catalogue, 1862

  Boulton, John, ‘William Henry Perkin’, JSDC, Vol. 73, No. 3, March 1957, pp. 81–5

  Brightman, R., ‘Perkin and the Dyestuffs Industry in Britain’, Nature, Vol. 177, May 5, 1956

  Cliffe, W. H., ‘In the Footsteps of Perkin’, JSDC, Vol. 72, No. 12, 1956, pp. 563–6

  – ‘The Dyemaking Works of Perkin & Sons: Some Hitherto Unrecorded Details’, JSDC, Vol. 73, No. 7, July 1957, pp. 312–28

  Cronshaw, C. J. T., Through Chemisty, Adornment, The Royal Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1949

  Crookes, William, ‘Chemical Products: The Application of Waste’, Popular Science Review, London, 1863

  Dawson, Dan, On Azo Colouring Matters, The Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1884, pp. 12–19

  Dickens, Charles, ed., ‘Perkins’ Purple’, All the Year Round, London, 30 April 1859

  Finley, Alexander, and Mills, William Hobson, ‘William Henry Perkin, Jnr’, in British Chemists, London Chemical Society, 1947

  Gilbert, Kerry, ‘The Cultivation of Woad (Isatis Tinctoria): Agronomy, Physiology and Biochemical Aspects’, PhD, University of Bristol, 1997

  Homberg, Ernst, ‘The Emergence of Research Laboratories in the Dyestuffs Industry, 1870–1900’, BJHS, 25, 1992, pp. 91–111

  Hooper, C. J. W., ‘Celebration of the Centenary of the Discovery of Mauve by W. H. Perkin’, JSDC, Vol. 72, No. 12, December 1956, pp. 566–73

  Hornix, Willem J., ‘From Process to Plant: Innovation in the Early Artificial Dye Industry’, BJHS, Vol. 25, 1992, pp. 65–90

  Hummel, J. J., ‘Notes on the Application of Alizarine and Allied Colouring Matters to Wool Dyeing’, JSDC, November 1884

  Hurst, George H., ‘On The Use of Coal-Tar Colours in the Manufacture of Pigments for Painters, etc.’, JSDC, 25 Febrary 1890.

  Illustrated London News, 2 and 30 January, 6 February, 6 April 1858

  Johnson, A., and Turner, H. A., ‘Synthetic Dyes from the Time of Perkin’, The Dyer and Textile Printer, 11 May 1956

  Kauffman, George B., ‘Pittacal: The First Synthetic Dyestuff’, Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 54, No. 12, December 1977

  Leaback, David, ‘What Hofmann Left Behind’, Chemistry and Industry, 18 May 1992

  – ‘Chemical enterprise from “The Elephant”’, Chemists in Britain, April 1992, pp. 340–43

  – ‘Perkin’s Pioneering Enterprise’, Chemistry in Britain, 24, No. 8, August 1988

  – ‘Discovery in the East End, East End Record, 12,1989, pp. 2–16

  Levinstein, Dr Herbert, ‘Perkin’s Adventure and What Has Become of It’, The Dyer and Textile Printer, December 1938, pp. 495–6

  Levinstein, I, ‘On the Coal-Tar Colour Industry’, The Dyer and Calico Printer, 15 October 1890

  Meldola, R., ‘Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased: William Henry Perkin’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 80, June 1908

  Meth-Cohn, Otto, and Smith, Mandy, ‘What Did W. H. Perkin Actually Make When He Oxidised Aniline to Obtain Mauveine?, Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 1, 1994, pp. 5–7

  Meth-Cohn, Otto, and Travis, Anthony S., ‘The Mauveine Mystery’, Chemistry in Britain, July 1995, pp. 547–9

  Morris, Laur
ence E., ‘The Genius of Perkin’, Dyer, Textile Printer and Finisher, Vol 115, 11 May 1956, pp. 747–64

  Morris, Peter J. T., and Travis, Anthony S., ‘A History of The International Dyestuff Industry’, American Dyestuff Reporter, November 1992

  Nieto-Galan, Agusti, ‘Calico and Chemical Knowledge in Lancashire in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Life and Colours of John Mercer’, Annals of Science, 54, 1997, pp. 1–28

  Peel, R. A., ‘Perkin and the Scottish Alizarin Dyers’, The Dyer and Textile Printer, May 1956

  Perkin, Arthur George, ‘Constituents of Natural Indigo’, Journal of the Chemical Society, 91, 1907, pp. 435–40

  Perkin, Arthur George, and Bloxam, W. Popplewell, ‘Some Constituents of Natural Indigo’, Journal of the Chemical Society, 91,1907, pp. 281–8

  Perkin, F. Mollwo, ‘The Artificial Colour Industry and Its Position in this Country’, JSDC, December 1914

  Perkin, William. H, Cantor Lectures: ‘On the Aniline or Coal Tar Colours’, JSA, 1 January 1869, pp. 99–105; 8 January 1869, pp. 109–14; and 15 January 1869, pp. 121–7

  – ‘The History of Alizarine and Allied Colouring Matters and Their Production from Coal Tar’, JSA, 30 May 1879

  – ‘On Mauveine and Allied Colouring Matters’, Journal of the Chemical Society, 1879, pp. 717–32

  – Hofmann Memorial Lecture: ‘The Origin of the Coal-Tar Colour Industry and the Contributions of Hofmann and His Pupils’, Journal of the Chemical Society, Vol. 69, Part 1, 1896, pp. 596–637

  – ‘The Story of the Discovery of the First Aniline Dye’, Scientific American, 10 November 1906

  – ‘The Magnetic Rotation of Hexatriene and Its Relationship to Benzene and other Aromatic Compounds, Journal of the Chemical Society, 1907, pp. 806–17

  Perkin, William H. (Jnr), ‘The Position of the Organic Chemical Industry’, Journal of the Chemical Society, 25 March 1915

  Phipson, Dr T. L., ‘The Aniline Dyes’, Popular Science Review, London, 1864, pp. 429–37

  Punch, 7 and 21 August, 18 and 25 September, 13 and 20 November 1858; 16 April, 7, 14 and 28 May, 4 and 18 June, 16 July, 6 and 20 August, 3 December 1859

  Rawson, Christopher, ‘Valuation of Indigos’, JSDC, 25 February 1885

  Reed, Peter, ‘The British Chemical Industry and the Indigo Trade’, BJHS, No. 25, 1992, pp. 113–25

  Reinhardt, Carsten, and Travis, Anthony S., ‘The Introduction of Aniline to Paper Printing and Queen Victoria’s Postage Stamps’, Ambix, Vol. 44, March 1997

  Robinson, Sir Robert, ‘The Perkin Family of Organic Chemists’, Endeavour, April 1956

  Rowe, F. M., ‘Tribute to Founder of Synthetic Dye Industry’, Dyer, Textile Printer and Finisher, November 1938, p. 392

  Schweitzer, Dr Hugo, ‘The Influence and Effect of Perkin’s Initiative’, The Dyer and Calico Printer, 10 December 1906

  Taylor, G. W., ‘Identification of Dyes on Early William Morris Embroideries from Castle Howard’, Textile History, 16, 1985, pp. 97–102

  The Times, 3, 6, 9,12 and 13 September 1884

  Todd, Sir Alexander, ‘The Future of Organic Chemistry’, Listener, 17 May 1956

  Travis, Anthony S., ‘Science as Receptor of Technology: Paul Ehrlich and the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry’, Science in Context 3, 2, 1989, PP. 383–408

  – ‘Perkin’s Mauve: Ancestor of the Organic Chemical Industry’, Technology and Culture, Vol. 31, 1990, pp. 51–82

  – ‘Science’s Powerful Companion: A. W. Hoffmann’s Investigation of Aniline Red and its Derviatives’, BJHS, 25, 1992, pp. 27–44

  – ‘August Wilhelm Hofmann’, Endeavour, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1992, pp. 59–65

  – and Benfey, Theodor, ‘August Wilhelm Hofmann: A Centennial Tribute’, Education in Chemistry, 1992, pp. 69–72

  – ‘The Man Who Put Science into Industry’, Chemistry and Industry, 20 April 1992

  – ‘Poisoned Groundwater and Contaminated Soil: The Tribulations and Trial of the First Major Manufacturer of Aniline Dyes in Basel’, Environmental History, 2, July 1997, pp. 343–65

  Van Den Belt, Henk, ‘Why Monopoly Failed: The Rise and Fall of Société La Fuchsine’, BJHS, 25, 1992, pp. 45–63

  Various authors, The Athenaeum, No. 1767, 7 September 1861

  Various authors, ‘Discussion on the Alleged Poisonous Action of Dyes on the Skin’, JSDC, 25 November 1884

  Various authors, ‘Presentations to Sir William Perkin: Official Notices’, Journal of Science, 31 August 1906

  Various authors, ‘Centenary Anniversary Tribute to Perkin’, Manchester Guardian, 7 May 1956

  Various authors, ‘Sir William Henry Perkin’, Ciba Review, No. 115, June 1956

  Various authors, ‘Proceedings of the Society’, JSDC, Vol 72, No. 12, December 1956

  Various authors, ‘Dyes on Historical and Archaeological Textiles’, 2nd Meeting, National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, September 1983, PP. 14–16, 20–25

  Vetterli, W. A., ‘The History of Indigo’, Ciba Review, 85, Basle, April 1951

  Whittaker, C. M., ‘Some Early Stages in the Renaissance of the British Dyemaking Industry’, JSDC, Vol. 72, No. 12, 1956, pp. 557–63

  Books

  Anissimov, Myriam, Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist, Aurum Press, London 1998

  Arnold, David, Imperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies, Manchester University Press, 1988

  Bedoukian, Paul Z, Perfumery and Flavouring Synthetics, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1967

  Beer, John Joseph, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry, University of Illinois, 1959; new edition, 1981

  Birren, Faber, History of Color in Painting, Litton Educational Publishing, Inc., 1965

  Breward, Christopher, The Culture of Fashion, Manchester University Press, 1995

  Brock, William H., The Norton History of Chemistry, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1993

  Brockington, C. Fraser, Public Health in the Nineteenth Century, E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, Edinburgh and London, 1965

  Bruce-Chwatt, Leonard Jan, and Zulueta, Julian de, The Rise and Fall of Malaria in Europe, Oxford University Press, 1980

  Buck, Anne, Victorian Costumes and Costume Accessories, Herbert Jenkins, London, 1961

  Bud, Robert and Roberts, Gerrylynn K., Science Versus Practice, Manchester University Press, 1984

  Christy, Cuthbert, Mosquitos and Malaria: A Summary of Knowledge on the Subject up to Date, Sampson Low, Marston and Co. Ltd, London, 1900

  Clements, Richard, Modern Chemical Discoveries, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1954

  Cumming, Valerie, Royal Dress: The Image and the Reality 1580 to the Present Day, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1989

  Cunnington, C. Willett, The Perfect Lady, Max Parrish & Co. Ltd, 1948

  Desowitz, Robert, The Malaria Capers, W. W. Norton & Co. Ltd., London, 1991

  Duran-Reynals, M. L., The Fever Bark Tree, W. H. Allen, London, 1947

  Fenichell, Stephen, Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century, Harper-Business, New York, 1996

  Fox, M. R., Dye-Makers of Great Britain 1856–1976, Imperial Chemical Industries, Manchester, 1987.

  Galdston, Iago, Behind the Sulfa Drugs, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., New York, 1943

  Gernsheim, Alison, Fashion and Reality, Faber and Faber, London, 1963

  Giles, Herbert M., and Warrell, David A., Bruce-Chwatt’s Essential Malariology, Edward Arnold, 1992

  Haber, L. F., The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1958

  Hall, G. K., Du Pont and the International Chemical Industry, Twayne Publishers, 1984

  Harrow, Benjamin, Eminent Chemists of Our Time, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd, London, 1921

  Hartnell, Norman, Royal Courts of Fashion, Cassell, London, 1971

  Hayes, Peter, Industry and Ideology: I. G. Farben in the Nazi Era, Cambridge University Press, 1987

  Heusser, Albert H., The History of the Silk Dyeing Industry in the United States, Silk Dyers’ Association of America, New Jersey, 1927

  Hills,
Richard L., and Brock, W. H., eds., Chemistry and the Chemical Industry in the 19th Century, Variorum, 1997.

  Hobson, W., World Health and History, John Wright & Sons Ltd., Bristol, 1963

  Holden, Angus, Elegant Modes in the Nineteenth Century from High Waist to Bustle, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1935

  Kendall, James, Young Chemists and Great Discoveries, G. Bell & Sons Ltd, London, 1939

  Laver, James, Taste and Fashion from the French Revolution to the Present Day, George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd, 1945

  Leggett, William F, Ancient and Medieval Dyes, Chemical Publishing Co., Brooklyn, NY, 1944

  Matthews, Leslie G., History of Pharmacy in Britain, E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, Edinburgh and London, 1962

  Megroz, R. L., Ronald Ross: Discoverer and Creator, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, 1931.

  Meldola, Raphael, Green, Arthur G., and Cain, John Cannel, eds., Jubilee of the Discovery of Mauve and the Foundation of the Coal-Tar Industry by Sir W. H. Perkin, Perkin Memorial Committee, London, 1906

  Moore, Doris Langley, The Woman in Fashion, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1949

  Morgan, Sir Gilbert T, and Pratt, David Doig, British Chemical Industry: Its Rise and Development, Edward Arnold and Co., 1938

  Morris, Peter J. T., and Russell, Colin A., Archives of the British Chemical Industry 1750–1914, British Society for the History of Science, Oxfordshire, 1988

  Nye, Edwin R., and Gibson, Mary E., Ronald Ross: Malariologist and Polymath, London, 1997

  Pelling, Margaret, Cholera, Fever and English Medicine 1825–1865, Oxford University Press, 1978

  Perkin, Arthur George, and Everest, Arthur Ernest, The Natural Organic Colouring Matters, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1918

  Pilcher, Richard B., and Butler-Jones, Frank, What Industry Owes to Chemical Science, Constable and Co. Ltd, London, 1918

  Ponting, Ken, A Dictionary of Dyes and Dyeing, Bell and Hyman Ltd, London, 1981

  Portugal, Franklin H., and Cohen, Jack S., A Century of DNA, MIT Press, 1977

  Ramsey, Albert R. J., and Weston, H. Claude, Artificial Dyestuffs: Their Nature, Manufacture and Uses, George Routledge & Sons, London, 1917

 

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