Blue Notes Concedes a Moment to Mauve Notes

摘要

The 150th anniversary of the seminal discovery of a synthetic color, mauve by Sir William Perkin (1838-1907) should not go unnoticed because he effectivelylaunched the entire pharmaceuticalindustry. Perkin was born in London. He attended the Royal College of Chemistry and became an assistant toAugust Von Hofmann,a famous chemist. WithVon Hofmann's encour-agement, Perkin, at theage of 18, attempted tomake synthetic quinine. Ithad been known to benefitsufferers from malaria and untilthen was produced from treebark. There was reason to develop asynthetic form.