Perkin's mauve

He later switched to an appellation that would go down in history as the first commercial product of the synthetic chemical industry: Perkin’s mauve, or mauveine.

British scientists and tinkerers made groundbreaking discoveries in electricity and chemistry; William Perkin effectively invented the modern chemical industry when he made the first artificial dye – Perkin's mauve – from coal tar.

Perkin’s mauve prepared the way for the manufacture of aniline, and the discovery of a good process for the production of magenta increased this branch of manufacture to a remarkable extent.

The first coal-tar colouring-matter, Perkin’s mauve, is a member of this class.

Lastly, Perkin's mauve, dahlia, and methyl violet become of a grayish brown, which may be re-converted into a fine violet by washing in abundance of water.