June 24th has long been a date marked by monumental events that have shaped the course of history across the globe.One of the ...

Distinguished guests from all over the UK descended on London to honour the 150th anniversary of William Perkin's discovery of the first synthetic dye, mauveine. The celebrations were jointly ...

The popular red dye — also called Red No. 3, FD&C Red No. 3, Erythrosine, E127, and Red 3 — is a known carcinogen, but it's been brightening up our food for over a century.

But in 1856, William Henry Perkins, an 18-year-old chemist stumbled across the first synthetic dye, a purplish color called Mauveine, which was derived from coal tar.

In their new book, Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge explore the origins of colors found rocks, animals, plants, and even space—including these 10 historical pigments with surprising histories.

1. Perkin famously (and serendipitously) discovered the purple dye mauveine at age 18. 2. Also known as the Faraday effect, magnetic rotary polarization occurs when a magnetic field alters the ...

The dye that seeped from simmered chips of logwood, brought from far Belize by buccaneers, turned wool a marvelous range of pinks, reds, blues, and purples, depending on how the material was prepared.