Perkin's accidental mauve
He sought a malaria cure and got a fashionable purple
Over the Easter holiday, 18-year-old student William Perkin tried to make quinine from coal tar and got a black sludge that dyed cloth a brilliant purple. It was the first synthetic dye, and it made Perkin rich.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Did you know
Purple went from emperors to London fashion thanks to a student's failed experiment. For centuries the dye came from thousands of sea snails; then Perkin, trying to make quinine, got one from coal tar. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 3 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 5 years later
- 1864 End of the Caucasian War and the Circassian expulsion — 8 years later
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 11 years later
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Middle East
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — 17 years earlier
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — 17 years earlier
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 20 years later
Africa
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Asia
- 1839–1842 First Opium War — 17 years earlier
- 1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion — 6 years earlier
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- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 12 years later
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Americas
- 1861–1865 American Civil War — 5 years later
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation — 7 years later
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Oceania
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Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 47)
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- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 16)
- Thomas Edison (aged 9)
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