edited by MIRIAMC NAGEL Avon Hlgh School
ROGER R.
FESTA
Brlen McMahon Hlgh School
Sir William Henry Perkin, Pioneer in Color Miriam C. Nagel A w n High School Avon, CT 06001
"His dye was a pioneer and it cleared the way for all that came after it. It completely revolutionized the dyeing and textile printing industry and gave rise to an amount of chemical research in the coal tar colors which is probably without an industrial parallel.'"
Before William Henry Perkin discovered synthetic mauve, dyes were extracted from natural products and consequently were subject to many variables. Perkin was not lookinn for solutions to dye in 1856 when he noticed . problems . a hriyln purplewluti~min ,I tc,t t~ihch ~ a n s ( l t . r ~ t i nHe q . hxl tigait! i3iled t o prtduac the white c y ~ t a l l i quinine ~ ~ e hc wds I r , o k i nu~fur h t ~,t inairitc . .
