Mauve
Page 21
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
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