Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World [Hardcover]

Simon Garfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

Born of a laboratory accident, this odd shade of purple revolutionized fashion, industry, and the practice of science. Before 1856, the color in our lives--the reds, blues, and blacks of clothing, paint, and 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 failed to produce artificial quinine. Instead he created a dark oily sludge that turned silk a beautiful light purple. Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London, but its importance extended far beyond ball gowns. It sparked new interest in industrial applications of chemistry research, which later brought about the development of explosives, perfume, photography, and modern medicine. With great wit, scientific savvy, and historical scope, Simon Garfield delivers a fascinating tale of how an accidental genius set in motion an extraordinary scientific achievement.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1856, while trying to synthesize artificial quinine, 18-year-old chemistry student William Perkin instead produced a murky residue. Fifty years later, he described the event: he "was about to throw a certain residue away when I thought it might be interesting. The solution of it resulted in a strangely beautiful color." Perkin had stumbled across the world's first aniline dye, a color that became known as mauve.

"So what?" you might say. "A teenager invented a new color." As Simon Garfield admirably points out in Mauve, the color really did change the world. Before Perkin's discovery all the dyes and paints were colored by roots, leaves, insects, or, in the case of purple, mollusks. As a result, colors were inconsistent and unpredictably strong, often fading or washing out. Perkin found a dye that would always produce a uniform shade--and he pointed the way to other synthetic colors, thus revolutionizing the world of both dyemaking and fashion. Mauve became all the rage. Queen Victoria wore it to her daughter's wedding in 1858, and the highly influential Empress Eugénie decided the color matched her eyes. Soon, the streets of London erupted in what one wag called the "mauve measles."

Mauve had a much wider impact as well. By finding a commercial use for his discovery--much to the dismay of his teacher, the great August Hofmann, who believed there needed to be a separation between "pure" and "applied" science--Perkin inspired others to follow in his footsteps: "Ten years after Perkin's discovery of mauve, organic chemistry was perceived as being exciting, profitable, and of great practical use." The influx of bright young men all hoping to earn their fortunes through industrial applications of chemistry later brought significant advances in the fields of medicine, perfume, photography, and even explosives. Through it all, Garfield tells his story in clever, witty prose, turning this odd little tale into a very entertaining read. --Sunny Delaney

From Library Journal

Since his discovery of the first synthetic dye in 1856, interest in William Perkin has undergone a resurgence approximately every 50 years. Garfield's (The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS) biography follows in the footsteps of A Jubilee Proceedings (1906) and a centenary supplement to the organic chemistry journal Tetrahedron (1956). It focuses on Perkin as a pioneer, taking research from the burgeoning field of academic chemistry and applying it to industry. The creation of a popular dye from coal-tar (a plentiful industrial waste) when the field of dyeing was beholden to natural dyes, such as indigo and madder, made Perkin very rich and fleetingly famous. The book also chronicles the influence of this discovery throughout the industry and into other fields. That the use of stains and dyes eventually transformed biochemistry and medicine is ironic, given that Perkin was originally seeking a cure for malaria when he stumbled onto the mauve dye. Recommended for science collections in academic and large public libraries. Wade M. Lee, Univ. of Toledo Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393020053
• ISBN-13: 978-0393020052
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,602,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Color your world April 9, 2002

By J. J. Kwashnak VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Originally I was skeptical of a book about the origin of a color, but Mauve is so much more. It is the story of the creation of artificial colors, the industries that spawned from it, as well as birth of chemistry as a innovating science in the 19th century. The discoveries by William Perkins opened up what would be literally thousands of new colors over the years, as well as essential components of the perfume industry, flavorings industry and even the bleaching industry. Inspirational also because so much of this arose from literally castoff garbage - coal tar. In essence Perkins began a new wave of recycling. The heart of the story is less the discovery itself, but the ripples it set off that continue to today, leading to the "better living through chemistry." Yet it also spotlights one of the lamentably forgotten pioneers in science who through a combination of curiosity, determination, foresight and luck found value in others castoff. Though it is classified as a biography, it is more of a sweeping view of history - the actual materials on Perkin's life pre and post mauve are almost incidental to what was discovered. Garfield helps shed light on the color revolution and spotlights something that we today often take for granted. It was nice to walk away from a book and realized that I really learned something.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Real chemistry April 16, 2002

By Joe Haldeman

Format:Paperback

This book pushed so many of my buttons -- science history, painting, Victoriania, chains of coincidence and hidden causality -- that I had to love it. Best popular science book I've read in a while.

A diferent kind of reader might have been annoyed at the depth of detail, much of it trivia. I gobbled it up, though.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book January 23, 2002

By Pat Barker

Format:Hardcover

I received Mauve this Christmas and loved it. It's a hybrid of a book, a primer in science, Victoriana, fashion and color. It's not so much a biography of Sir William Perkin, the man on the cover, as a history of mauve since his invention (1850s) to the present. Simon Garfield made me believe that the whole world can be seen in terms of a particular color, and he weaves in some great historical detail to support his case.
Mauve was really the first artificial dye to be made, and became the toast of London and Paris once the Empress Eugenie found that it suited her crinolines like nothing else. After mauve, any artificial dye was possible, and the world really did change. Even if it isn't your color of choice, I recommended this book as a very interesting read.
(By the way, I'm not Pat Barker the British author!)