ஊதா கலரு டை…

I will have to start with a quote.

‘I was then eighteen. While working on an experiment, I failed, and was about to throw a certain black residue away when I thought it might be interesting. The solution of it resulted in a strangely beautiful colour. You know the rest.’



An 18-year-old boy, with none of the modern-day gauging equipment, discovered a colour that changed the world of chemistry from theoretical, experimental studies to a world industry. The prospect of wealth through chemistry gave birth not only to the artificial colours but changed the world of modern medicines, perfumes, explosives, Canned food preservatives, photography and many more.

Outside the home where he born, the following is written in a plaque “Sir William Henry Perkin, FRS, discovered the first aniline dyestuff, March 1856, while working in his home laboratory on this site, and went on to found science-based industry.”

I emphasize the important words – “went on to found science-based industry”. When I chose this book, I didn’t know he passed away in the month of July. William Perkin passed away on July 14, 1907.
I read the book “The demon under the microscope” a few years before. It was about the first antibacterial sulpha drugs discovery by a german scientist Gerhard Domagk. In a way, Perkin was the inspiration to all these discoveries and many more. There was a mention about that in this book.

Perkin set out on a similar path to discover the artificial quinine, an anti-malarial drug, from the coal tar and discovered the beautiful colour mauve. It was even more amusing to know that the chemists in London were trying to find uses of a by-product coal tar which was an outcome of gaslighting by Coal. These by-products of Coal were polluting the London water bodies, and every chemist was working to find something out of these by-products (aka waste). Perkin discovered a gold mine from a waste.

More about the book. There was a lot of science information in this book. There was information about the discovery of sulpha drugs, penicillin, the discovery of gases (Oxygen & Hydrogen), and it requires careful reading to retain this information. I think I forgot almost all the information and referred by highlights for the facts and quotes here. However, it is interesting to learn the science and history of both pure and applied science with books like Mauve. I can’t help but think of the Man who knew infinity, Alchemy of Air & the demon under the microscope.

The book ends with finding the final rest place of Perkin. Simon Garfield gets help from someone who later reveals that she is the descendant of Perkin. The whole book is written in an investigative style as the author is trying to find information about someone who passed away 100 years before.

At times, there is detailed scientific procedural information that may prevent reading the book like a thriller. However, it is a great book about one of the greatest discoveries in the annals of scientific history.

The reason for my heading is in the quote again as I end this short introduction of the book and Sir William Perkin.

“Their dinner jackets were to be black, but their bow-ties were to be of a different colour, in recognition of the colour that had started it all off for Perkin, the colour that had chanced to change the world.”