Bibliograph

Mauve, how one man invented a colour that changed the world, Simon Garfield

Type

Label

Mauve, how one man invented a colour that changed the world, Simon Garfield

Language

eng

Illustrations

illustrationsportraitsplates

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Mauve

Responsibility statement

Simon Garfield

Sub title

how one man invented a colour that changed the world

Summary

1856. Eighteen-year-old chemistry student William Perkin's experiment has gone horribly wrong. But the deep brown sludge his botched project has produced has an unexpected power: the power to dye everything it touches a brilliant purple. Perkin has discovered mauve, the world's first synthetic dye, bridging a gap between pure chemistry and industry which will change the world forever. From the fetching ribbons soon tying back the hair on every fashionable head in London, to the laboratories in which scientists first scrutinized the human chromosome under the microscope, leading all the way to the development of modern vaccines against cancer and malaria, Simon Garfield's landmark work swirls together science and social history to tell the story of how one colour became a sensation

Classification