The year 1938 was the centenary of the birth of Sir William Perkin, one of the most remarkable men of that most remarkable era, the British Industrial Revolution. During his school days Perkin had the good fortune to fall in with a most competent teacher of chemistry, in which subject he at once found his vocation. At the age of eighteen his scientific curiosity led him to the discovery of "aniline purple," a dyestuff giving a mauve colour. Considering Perkin's age, the discovery was remarkable enough in itself; but the young scientist also showed an unusual business acumen by initiating the manufacture of the dyestuff in his own factory only a year later. To dye silk with mauve was a simple matter, but further research was needed to apply the method to cotton. Perkin overcome this difficulty by his discovery of the "tannin" process, which enables cotton to be satisfactorily dyed with any basic dye, an achievement even more important than his first discovery. Thus at the age of nineteen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.