PASSAGE 1: DISCOVERING PURPLE

For thousands of years, dyes used to colour textiles and other materials were made from only natural sources. Historically, coloured dyes were made from the roots and leaves of plants, and from certain animals. Among the most precious of the animal-based dyes was the purple colour extracted from snails. This dye was very difficult to obtain and was therefore outrageously expensive. What was more, colours from natural dyes tended to be quite dull, and they faded when exposed to sunlight. But all this changed in 1856, when a London teenager made an important discovery.

William Perkin was born on March 12, 1838, in London, England. His father was a builder, and the family lived in fairly prosperous circumstances in an otherwise rather disreputable neighbourhood in the city's East End. As a boy, Perkin's curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences, photography, and engineering. But then one day, when he was exploring his late grandfather's home, he happened to come across a run-down, yet functional, laboratory, and this solidified his passion for chemistry.

As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the study of chemistry. His teacher, Thomas Hall, encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Those speeches fired the young chemist's enthusiasm further, and he became determined to attend the Royal College of Chemistry. Perkin's father hoped to convince his bright young son to follow in his older brother's footsteps into the more respectable field of architecture, so he tried to prevent this at first. But pressure from Hall and the wishes of his son won out, and Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry in 1853, at the age of 15. At the time of Perkin's enrolment, the college was headed by noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin's scientific gifts soon caught Hofmann's attention, and within two years, he became Hofmann's youngest assistant. Not long after that, Perkin made the discovery that would make him both famous and wealthy.