Born of a laboratory accident, this odd shade of purple revolutionized fashion, industry, and the practice of science.

Mauve is the story of a man who accidentally invented a color, and in the process transformed the world around him. Before 1856, the color in our lives?the reds, blues, and blacks of clothing, paint, print?came from insects or mollusks, roots or leaves, and dyeing was painstaking and expensive. But in 1856 eighteen-year-old English chemist William Perkin accidentally discovered a way to mass-produce color in a factory.

Working on a treatment for malaria in his London home laboratory, Perkin found mauve by chance. His experiments failed to result in artificial quinine as he had hoped, but produced instead a dark oily sludge that happened to turn silk a beautiful light purple. Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London, and quickly led to crimsons, violets, blues, and greens, earning its inventor a fortune. But its importance extends far beyond ballgowns.

Before mauve, chemistry was largely a theoretical science. Perkin's discovery sparked new interest in industrial applications of chemistry research, which later brought about the development of explosives, perfume, photography, modern medicine, and today's plastics industry.

Perkin is honored with the odd plaque and bust in colleges and chemistry clubs, but is otherwise a forgotten man. With great wit, scientific savvy, and historical scope, Simon Garfield delivers a fascinating tale of how this accidental genius set in motion an extraordinary scientific leap.

Garfield recounts William Perkin's accidental discovery of a factory-production dyeing process. He then assesses the impact of that event in fashion, chemistry, industry, and history. The book celebrates Garfield as both a scientist and a personality. Eight pages of illustrations and photographs (black and white and color) are featured. Garfield is an author with no university affiliation.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The man was William Perkin (1838-1907), an English chemist. The color was mauve, which he discovered by accident when he was 18. "While working on an experiment, I failed," he said many years later, "and was about to throw a certain black residue away when I thought it might be interesting." The experiment was an effort to make synthetic quinine, and the black residue was coal tar. Perkin's accidental discovery gave rise to industrial aniline and the modern synthetic-dye industry, as well as to a number of other processes employing coal-tar derivatives. It also, Garfield says, "affected the whole nature of scientific investigation: for the first time, people realized that the study of chemistry could make them rich." Perkin became rich and received a knighthood. Garfield, a Londoner who writes about science, tells the Perkin and aniline stories well. Scientific American

"An engaging and airy history." Marcia Bartusiak, New York Times Book Review

"...a witty, erudite and entertaining tome about the history of synthetic dyes. And, yes, we're very happy they made a book out of this unlikely subject." Adrienne Miller, Esquire

Simon Garfield is the author of several acclaimed books, including The End of the Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. He lives in London.