Perkins Mauve: Ancestor of the Organic Chemical Industry

Abstract

Perkins Mauve: Ancestor of the Organic Chemical Industry ANTHONY S. TRAVIS Some time during December 1857, the first revenue-earning con­ signment of a novel chemical product was dispatched from a small factory alongside the Grand Junction Canal in the county of Middle­ sex, northwest of London. Its destination was the largest silk dye works in London, that of Thomas Keith and Sons at Bethnal Green in the East End of the city.1 The special property of the new chemical was its ability to impart a permanent color to silk and wool. This event was a milestone in 19th-century technological progress, for it marked not only the first hesitant step in the industrialization of organic chemistry but also the onset of commercialization of scientific invention. It foreshadowed a new era of remarkable materials pains­ takingly wrested from coal tar, a hitherto inconvenient by-product generated in large amounts during the manufacture of coke and town gasThe synthetic dye, at first marketed under the trade name of Tyrian purple, was the prototype of aniline or coal tar dyes. Its creation had been no mean feat for the nineteen-year-old William Henry Perkin (1838—1907), formerly a student at the Royal College of Chemistry in Oxford Street, London, where he had risen to the post of research assistant under August Wilhelm Hofmann, the acknowledged doyen of coal tar chemistry. Dr. Travis is with the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. He wishes to thank Professor Timothy Lenoir, Stanford University, for invaluable discussion concerning the structure of scientific discipline; Moshe Ron, curator of the Edelstein Library at the Hebrew University, for assistance and access to the many rare items in the chemistry, dyeing, and chemical technology section; and Ken Magee, historical archivist of ICI Colours and Fine Chemicals, Manchester. The Technology and Culture referees are thanked for their constructive and valuable comments, as are Giora Hon and Peter McLaughlin. This article is dedicated to Sidney M. Edelstein. 'William Henry Perkin, “Hofmann Memorial Lecture: The Origin of the Coal-Tar Colour Industry, and the Contributions of Hofmann and His Pupils,” Journal of the Chemical Society 69, pt. 1 (1896): 607.© 1990 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/90/3101-0001$01.00 51 52 Anthony S. Travis In an age of scientific empiricism, particularly for organic chemis­ try, which lacked a sound theoretical basis, the imprecise knowledge concerning the composition of the purple dye was hardly a drawback. Chemical characterization of Tyrian purple lay in its basic properties, associated with nitrogen from the aniline, and this was relevant to the attachment of dye to fiber. As an organic base, its properties differed markedly from the acidic vegetable coloring matters then in use, and thus both the time-honored and the more recent methods of fixing dyes were no longer applicable. William Perkin’s invention was found useful not only because he developed the means of manufacture but also because he paid careful attention to the needs of potential consumers, the dyehouses and printworks. For them he devised methods for fixing the dye to cotton, silk, and wool, resolving major technical problems in the very places where everyday practice existed. No sales effort could have been more effective in persuading the conservative dyers to accept and adopt the novel coal tar—derived dye. This account of Perkin’s fledgling enter­ prise follows its progress until the end of 1859. The level of success was such that by then the aniline dye industry had become well established in the United Kingdom and France, had found a small footing in Germany, and was about to begin in Switzerland. Previous reviews of Perkin’s early career have tended to place it within the general framework of the development of modern aca­ demic and industrial chemistry2 or as part of a wide-ranging process that was leading to new types of dyeing materials.3 In this article the diverse viewpoints will be balanced by stressing, among other things, the uniqueness of the environment in which Perkin studied: the Royal College of Chemistry, with its research programs...