The Purple Accident That Recolored Fashion
In 1856, an 18-year-old chemistry student tried to make a medicine and produced a dark, unpromising substance instead. Many people might have thrown it away. William Henry Perkin examined it more closely and noticed that part of the material created a brilliant purple color. That unexpected result became mauveine, the first commercially successful synthetic dye. It helped turn a laboratory accident into a fashion craze and opened the door to a new chemical industry.