Molecules, Madness, and Malaria: How Victorian Fabric Dyes Evolved into Modern Medicines for Mental Illness and Infectious Disease

In 1856, William Henry Perkin, an 18 year old chemistry student in London, was attempting to synthesize quinine, when instead he ended up with a dark sticky substance in the bottom of his test tube. When cleaning it out with alcohol, he produced a bright purple liquid, which became aniline purple, the first synthetic fabric dye, and inadvertently launched an industry. Within the next few years, about 30 companies appeared, using synthetic organic chemistry to make dyes, and later over the y...