I have to admit that a lot of the information in this book wasn’t new to me. A blend of chemistry, history and biography, this book is about Perkin himself, his discoveries and their impact. I’m Jim McKeown.Have you heard of William Perkin? At the age of 18, he accidentally discovered a type of dye, from waste coal tar products, which would revolutionise many industries and associate his name with a particular colour – mauve. Simon Garfield’s story of Sir William Perkins, and his discovery of Mauve, is a book worthy of all those interested in science. The eclectic and arcane items would baffle only the mind of a savvy experimenter. The table on which he worked was stained with spillage from previous efforts, and probably of ink as well” (35). It was an amateur’s laboratory, an enthusiast’s collection of stained beakers and test tubes and rudimentary chemicals. There was no running water or gas supply, and the room was lit by old glass spirit lamps. He had constructed a furnace in the fireplace. Perkins domestic workplace contained a small table and a few shelves for bottles. Garfield continues, “In the first months of Eighteen-fifty-six, Gustave Flaubert began Madame Bovary, Karl Bechstein opened his piano factory, the plans for the bell Big Ben were drawn up at a foundry in White Chapel and Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross.ĭuring the Easter holidays of that year, August Hofmann returned briefly to Germany, and William Perkins retired to his laboratory on the top floor of his home in the East End of London. From coal: now, fifty years later, no one regarded this as in the least bit extraordinary” (9). Simon continues, “In Eighteen-fifty-six, Perkins had discovered the first aniline dye, the first famous artificial colour to be derived from coal. I was not surprised that scarcely only a couple of women were involved in science. I am amazed not to have heard of Perkins until now. These and many other quotes belong to Perkins.Īccording to Simon, “In this story, Perkins had been elevated to the status of scientific saint, his merits placed alongside those of Watt and Stephenson, Morse and Bell” (13). ‘There were no Bunsen burners-we had short lengths of iron tube covered with Quote: ‘The first public laboratory I worked in was the Royal College of Chemistry in Oxford Street, London, in Eighteen-fifty-three to Eighteen-fifty-six.’ It wasn’t like the great electric laboratories of today, he noted, with your huge booming furnaces.

He wrote in a modest and unflowery style. The story begins with Simon Garfield, “Sir William Perkins seldom traveled abroad. Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon Garfield is an interesting story and full of information about chemistry and science in general. I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Mauve by Simon Garfield