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SIR WILLIAM HENRY PERKIN (1838-1907)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 173 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:WILLIAM See also:HENRY See also:PERKIN (1838-1907)  , See also:English chemist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 12th of See also:March 1838 . From an See also:early See also:age he determined to adopt See also:chemistry as his profession, although his See also:father, who was a builder, would have preferred him to be an architect . Attending the See also:City of London School he devoted all his spare See also:time to chemistry, and on leaving, in 18J3, entered the Royal See also:College of Chemistry, then under the direction of A . W . See also:Hofmann, in whose own See also:research laboratory he was in the course of a See also:year or two promoted to be an assistant . Devoting his evenings to private investigations in a rough laboratory fitted up at his See also:home, See also:Perkin was fired by some remarks of Hofmann's to undertake the artificial See also:production of See also:quinine . In this See also:attempt he was unsuccessful, but the observations he made in the course of his experiments induced him, early in 1856, to try the effect of treating See also:aniline sulphate with bichromate of potash . The result was a precipitate, aniline See also:black, from which he obtained the colouring See also:matter subsequently known as aniline See also:blue or See also:mauve . He lost no time in bringing this substance before the managers of Pullar's dye-See also:works, See also:Perth, and they expressed a favourable See also:opinion of it, if only it should not prove too expensive in use . Thus encouraged, he took out a patent for his See also:process, and leaving the College of Chemistry, a boy of eighteen, he proceeded, with the aid of his father and See also:brother, to erect works at Greenford See also:Green, near See also:Harrow, for the manufacture of the newly discovered colouring matter, and by the end of 1857 the works were in operation . That date may therefore be reckoned as that of the See also:foundation of the See also:coal-See also:tar See also:colour See also:industry, which has since attained such important dimensions—in See also:Germany, however, rather than in See also:England, the See also:country where it originated . Perkin also had a large See also:share in the introduction of artificial See also:alizarin (q.v.), the red dye of the See also:madder See also:root .

C . Graebe and C . T . See also:

Liebermann in 1868 pre-pared that substance synthetically from See also:anthracene, but their process was not practicable on a large See also:scale, and it was See also:left to him to patent a method that was commercially valuable . Thishe did in 1869, thus securing for the Greenford Green works a See also:monopoly of alizarin manufacture for several years . About the same time he also carried out a See also:series of investigations into kindred substances, such as anthrapurpurin . About 1894 he abandoned the manufacture of coal-tar See also:colours and devoted himself exclusively to research in pure chemistry, and among the discoveries he made in this See also:field was that of the reaction known by his name, depending on the condensation of See also:aldehydes with fatty acids (see CINNAMIC See also:ACID) . Later still he engaged in the study of the relations between chemical constitution and rotation of the See also:plane of polarization in a magnetic field, and enunciated a See also:law expressing the variation of such rotation in bodies belonging to homologous series . For this See also:work he was in 1889 awarded a See also:Davy See also:medal by the Royal Society, which ten years previously had bestowed upon him a Royal medal in recognition of his investigations in the coal-tar colours . The Chemical Society, of which the became secretary in 1869 and See also:president in 1883, presented him with its Longstaff medal in 1889, and in 1890 he received the See also:Albert medal of the Society of Arts . In 1906 an See also:international celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his invention of mauve was held in London, and in the same year he was made a See also:knight . He died near Harrow on the 14th of See also:July 1907 .

His eldest son, See also:

WILLIAM See also:HENRY PERKIN, who was born at See also:Sudbury, near Harrow, on the 17th of See also:June 186o, and was educated at the City of London School, the Royal College of See also:Science, and ,the See also:universities of See also:Wurzburg and See also:Munich, became See also:professor of chemistry at the See also:Heriot-See also:Watt College, See also:Edinburgh, in 1887, and professor of organic chemistry at See also:Owens College, See also:Manchester, in 1892 . His See also:chief researches See also:deal with the poly-methylene compounds, the alkaloids, in particular See also:hydrastine and See also:berberine, and the See also:camphors and See also:terpenes (q.v.) . He received the Davy medal from the Royal Society in 1904 .

End of Article: SIR WILLIAM HENRY PERKIN (1838-1907)
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