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British chemist.
In 1856 he discovered mauve, the dye that originated the aniline-dye
industry and the British synthetic-dyestuffs industry generally. Perkin was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Chemistry. He was only 18 when he discovered and patented the process for mauve. With the help of his father he set up a factory to manufacture the dye. Perkin's factory introduced new dyes based on the alkylation of magenta, and in 1868 he established a new route for the synthesis of alizarin. By 1871 Perkin's company was producing one tonne of alizarin every day. He sold the factory and retired from industry in 1874 to continue his academic research. In one of his early home experiments Perkin produced the first example of the group of azo dyes produced from naphthalene. The aniline dyes - later named mauve by French textile manufacturers - are based on coal tar. The starting point for alizarin, a orange-red colour, was anthracene, another coal-tar derivative. In the late 1860s, Perkin prepared unsaturated acids by the action of acetic anhydride on aromatic aldehydes, a method known as the Perkin synthesis. In 1868 he synthesized coumarin, the first preparation of a synthetic perfume. |