TRIBUNNEWS.COM - London Timur, Inggris , 12 Maret 1838, menjadi hari yang begitu membahagiakan bagi sosok George Perkin, seorang Tukang Kayu yang sukses di eranya kala itu.
Di hari itulah, George bersama istrinya Sarah Perkin mendapatkan karunia berupa anak mereka yang ketujuh.
Anak itu kemudian mereka beri nama William Henry Perkin
George dan Sarah kala itu mungkin tak menyangka bahwa anak bungsu mereka dari tujuh bersaudara ini akan menjadi sosok yang berpengaruh dalam sejarah manusia.
Ya, sosok Sir William Henry Perkin tersebut akan selalu dikenang dalam sepanjang sejarah sebagai penemu pewarna sintetis pertama di dunia!
Sosoknya ini secara tak sengaja menemukan hal tersebut dalam sebuah kegagalan sintesis kinina sebagai obat malaria kala itu.
Tanpa 'kegagalannya' ini, mungkin perkembangan industri pewarna sintetis dan tekstil akan stagnan seperti di abad ke-18 hingga sekarang
Oleh karena itu tak heran jika untuk menghormatinya Google mengangkat Sir William Henry Perkin sebagai temanya di Google Doodle hari ini.
Lantas, bagaimana kisah awal mula Perkin menemukan zat pewarna 'mauvenine' untuk pakaian tersebut?
Semuanya bermula kala Perkin masih remaja, tepatnya berusia 18 tahun.
KOMPAS.com - Kalau bukan karena penemuan Sir Henry William Perkin, industri tekstil saat ini mungkin masih kesulitan memproduksi pewarna, khususnya untuk warna ungu yang dulu terkenal mahal. Sir Henry William Perkin, seorang ahli kimia asal Inggris, menemukan pewarna sintetis secara tidak sengaja saat sedang bersih-bersih laboratorium usai melakukan eksperimen untuk membuat quinine (obat malaria) sintetis pada 1856. Residu larutan kimia yang coba dibersihkan Sir Henry William Perkin dengan alkohol ternyata meninggakan noda berwarna ungu terang. Setelah diuji, ternyata “noda” tersebut bisa digunakan sebagai pewarna pakaian yang stabil dan tahan lama. Alih-alih membuat quinine yang ditugaskan oleh dosennya di Royal College of Chemistry, London, ketika itu, Sir Henry William Perkin pun malah menemukan pewarna sintetis (aniline dye) pertama. Wikipedia Sir William Henry Perkin Produk perdananya yang berwarna ungu tadi dinamai sebagai “mauveine”. Pada era tersebut, warna ungu banyak dicari untuk pewarna pakaian karena berkesan aristokrat. Namun, pewarna ungu mahal dan sukar diperoleh. Penemuan mauveine membuat warna ungu jadi mudah dan murah untuk diterapkan di pakaian. Sir Henry William Perkin pun beralih ke sektor manufaktur untuk memproduksi mauveine yang lantas laku keras dan memicu tren warna ungu di dunia fashion ketika itu. Saking ngetrennya, bahkan Ratu Inggris Victoria mengenakan gaun ungu yang diwarnai dengan mauveine saat berada di Royal Exhibition tahun 1862. Penemuan Sir Henry William Perkin segera diikuti oleh kemunculan pewarna sintetis lain, seperti fuchsine, safranine, dan induline. Sir Henry William Perkin sekaligus mengawali berdirinya industri kimia untuk pewarna sintetis dan kerabatnya, industri farmasi. Sebagaimana dirangkum KompasTekno dari keterangan di laman Google Doodle , Senin (12/3/2018), doodle hari ini dibuat untuk mengenang Sir Henry William Perkin yang lahir 180 tahun lalu pada 1838. Perancangnya adaalah ilustrator Sonny Ross yang juga asal Inggris seperit Perkin. Sir Henry William Perkin dianugerahi gelar bangsawan “Sir” pada 1906. Dia meninggal dunia setahun setelahnya karena pneumonia dan komplikasi lain.
Today's Google Doodle honors chemist Sir William Henry Perkin, who accidentally discovered the purple dye mauveine while trying to synthesize an anti-malarial drug.
During the spring of 1856, most college students in London were enjoying a brief respite from their studies, but 18-year-old William Henry Perkin was hard at work in a makeshift chemistry lab in his apartment at the top floor of his professor's houe. Perkin and his professor had spent the last three years trying to find a way to make quinine, a chemical substance found in the bark of the cinchona tree, which at the time was the best treatment available for malaria. Because it had to be extracting from cinchona bark, the medicine was expensive, but August Wilhelm von Hofmann, Perkin's professor at the Royal College of Chemistry, thought it could be produced more cheaply in the lab. Perkin had spent the last three years as Hofmann's assistant working on the problem, and by the time Easter vacation rolled around in 1856, he felt that he was simply too close to take a break.
But things weren't going well. Legend has it that Perkin was cleaning out a beaker after yet another unsuccessful attempt at making quinine, when he noticed that diluting the dark purple sludge with alcohol left a bright purple stain on the glass. Perkin, besides being a chemistry prodigy, was an avid painter and photographer, so he immediately saw the potential of a bright purple dye - if he could produce it reliably in large enough quantities. He moved his work to a garden shed to keep Hofmann from noticing his extracurricular work, and later that year he filed for a patent on a dye he called mauveine.
Mauveine was the first synthetic dye for cloth; every color on fabric in the mid-1800s had to be extracted from something in nature, such as a berry's juice or a beetle's exoskeleton. The best purple dye available at the time was made from mollusc mucus, which was difficult and expensive to extract. Mauveine was a cheaper and more color-fast alternative, and at the height of the industrial revolution, Perkin's timing was perfect.
Two American chemists, R.B. Woodward and W.E. Doering, finally managed to synthesize quinine in 1944, but cinchona bark is still the most practical, economical source.
SIR William Henry Perkin may not be a name many people have heard of - but the significance of his work lives on to this very day.
Here's why the British chemist is being celebrated with a Google Doodle on what would have been his 180th birthday.
GOOGLE A Google Doodle was created to honour Sir William Henry Perkin
Who was Sir William Henry Perkin?
Born in London's East End on March 12, 1838, William Perkin was the son of a successful carpenter which allowed him to attend the prestigious City of London School - setting him on a path of scientific discovery.
In 1853, at the age of just 15, Perkin began working with esteemed German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann at what is now known as Imperial College London.
The pair were researching and experimenting with quinine, a chemical that was first discovered in the bark of certain trees, and how it could be used to combat malaria.
While carrying out experiments at his flat, Perkin discovered that aniline, a compound, could be used to create a substance of a rich, deep purple colour when it was combined with alcohol.
The reason this was significant? Perkin had accidentally discovered a way of creating and mass producing a dye which could be used to colour fabrics – which up until then had to be coloured with expensive natural substances that could never be used in large quantities.
In an even better stroke of luck, the rich purple colour Perkin had stumbled across was in demand due to its long-time association with royalty and aristocracy.
It was at this point Perkin and his brother realised they had a very lucrative creation on their hands.
From there, Perkin built factories, raised funds and demand went through the roof when the colour was adopted by no less than Queen Victoria herself.
Perkin passed away in 1907 after suffering from pneumonia and is buried in Harrow. All three of his sons followed in his footsteps and became chemists.
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In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
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In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
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