William Henry Perkin
Perkin, Sir William Henry (1838-1907), an English chemist. In 1856, while working with coal tar chemicals in an attempt to synthesize quinine, Perkin, then only 18, developed the first synthetic dye—mauve, or aniline purple. He later developed other dyes and manufactured them in his own factory.
Perkin was born in London. He was studying at the Royal College of Chemistry at the time of his discovery. In 1874 Perkin sold his factory and devoted much time to examining the light-polarizing properties of organic molecules. He discovered the Perkin reaction for preparing unsaturated acids in 1878. He was knighted in 1906.