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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Pioneering British chemist Sir William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), the man who discovered the first artificial clothing dye entirely by accident, was born 180 years ago today.
The anniversary of this eminent Victorian and scion of the Industrial Revolution is commemorated in today's Google Doodle.
But who was Perkin and how did he come to make his breakthrough aged just 18?
Google Doodles
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1/86 Sir William Henry Perkin Google Doodle celebrating Sir William Henry Perkin Google
2/86 Gabriel Garcia Marquez Google Doodle celebrating Gabriel Garcia Marquez Google
3/86 Holi Google Doodle celebrating Holi Google
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43/86 Google Doodle celebrating Holi Festival Google Doodle celebrating Holi Festival Google
44/86 Google Doodle celebrating St. David's Day Google Doodle celebrating St. David's Day Google
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Perkin was raised in Shadwell in East London, the youngest of seven children born to wealthy carpenter George Perkin and his Scottish wife Sarah.
He attended the City of London School at the age of 14 and it was here that influential schoolmaster Thomas Hall first recognised his aptitude for chemistry and encouraged him to pursue its study.
A year later, William entered the Royal College of Chemistry (now part of Imperial College London) on Hall's recommendation and studied under the great German scientist August Wilhelm von Hofmann.
Who is Gertrude Jekyll?
Aged just 18, Perkin made the discovery that would define his career. Working on an experiment to synthesise quinine to aid the treatment of malaria, he learned that alcohol could be used to extract an intense purple colour from aniline.
Having a keen interest in photography and painting, Perkin realised his finding's potential but initially kept it a secret from Hofmann as it indicated the failure of his coursework.
Collaborating on its development with his brother Thomas and friend Arthur Church from the bowels of his make-shift Cable Street laboratory, Perkin realised the substance could be mass produced and commercialised.
Trialling "mauveine" - as it was now called - as a dye for silks, the trio found it stable and Perkin duly patented the process in 1856.
At the time, all dyes for colouring cloth were derived from natural substances, a costly and labour-intensive business. Purple particularly so, having to be extracted from the glandular mucus of molluscs. Yep, you read that right.
Perkin demonstrated considerable entrepreneurial spirit and prowess in convincing Britain's then-booming textile industry to adopt mauveine, raising capital, publicising the dye to whip up demand and advising manufacturers on its application to cotton.
His cause was greatly helped when both Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie of France wore mauveine-coloured gowns on occasions of state - and by a fashion for hooped-skirts taking off.
William spent the rest of his career controlling his business interests and working on new synthetic dyes, offering new shades such as "Britannia Violet" and "Perkin's Green".
Pop star Prince is closely identified with the colour purple (Warner Bros / Kobal /Rex/ Shutterstock )
Legend has it that the Grand Union Canal near his dyeworks in Greenford, Ealing, changed colour week by week depending on what chemicals Perkin was then working with.
He was later knighted for his achievements before dying of pneumonia in 1907 after suffering a burst appendix. All three of his sons became chemists to continue the family line.
What would Prince have done without him?
