有机化学工业从这一抹紫色开始（wash it off）

When he started fiddling with chemicals in his home in March 1856, William Henry Perkin had no idea what was about to happen. He was an 18-year-old student at London's Royal College of Chemistry, eager to impress his teacher. His homework assignment was to run experiments at home during the Easter break. Perkin was tasked with finding a cheap way to produce quinine, a substance used to treat malaria, which had to be extracted from the bark of exotic trees and was thus expensive. The young man thought he could make it himself in his simple home lab in London. So he started mixing ingredients.

1856年3月，当威廉·亨利·珀金（William Henry Perkin）开始在家中摆弄化学药品时，他并没有预感到将会发生什么。作为伦敦皇家化学学院的一名18岁学生，他迫切希望有所成就，让老师对他刮目相看。复活节假期，他的家庭作业是在家里做实验。珀金的任务是找到一种经济的方法来制造奎宁，奎宁是一种用于治疗疟疾的物质，必须从外来树木的树皮中提取，因为来之不易，所以价格极其昂贵。年轻时的帕金认为，他可以在自家简单的实验室里自己尝试做做看。实验中，他将各种原料混合到了一起。

Astonishing examples of serendipity in science

科学界最引人注目的意外收获之一

To make artificial quinine, Perkin turned to coal tar, the discarded sludge from Victorian gas lighting. It was believed that the two substances shared a similar chemical structure. But once he finished his concoction, instead of the normally colorless quinine, all that was left in his test tube was a thick black goo.

为了制造人造奎宁，珀金选择使用煤焦油，一种维多利亚时代用的燃气照明物废弃污泥。当时，人们普遍认为这两种物质具有相似的化学结构。但当他用煤焦油完成实验后，得到的并不是常见的无色奎宁，试管中留下的只有一层厚厚的黑色粘稠物。

When he tried to wash it off, it left behind a vivid purple color. Remarkably, he found that the color transferred to a cloth with untarnished brilliance. William Henry Perkin had failed to synthesize quinine, but had accidentally invented the first synthetic dye, in one of the most astonishing examples of serendipity in science.

在珀金清洗这层黑色粘稠物的过程中，这种物质在试管中留下了鲜艳的紫色。意外的是，他发现这种颜色能够转移到一种没有染色的织物上。虽然珀金没有制作出人工奎宁，但他却意外发明了首个人工合成染料——苯胺紫，这是科学界最引人注目的意外收获之一。

Right color, right time

对的时间，发现对的颜

Purple just happened to be the most coveted color of the time. "Various shades of purple, pink, lilac, mauve, and rose were at the height of fashion in the spring of 1856," Regina Lee Blaszczyk, professor of business history at the University of Leeds and author of "The Color Revolution," said in an email. Perkin realized that he was onto something. Until then, there were only natural dyes derived from plants and animals.

恰巧，紫色在1856年大受欢迎。利兹大学(University of Leeds)商业史教授、《颜色革命》(the Color Revolution)一书的作者雷吉娜·李·布拉茨奇克(Regina Lee Blaszczyk)在一封电子邮件中说，“1856年春天，深浅不一的紫色、粉红色、丁香此、淡紫色和玫瑰色处于时尚巅峰时代，大受人们欢迎。”珀金这才意识到他发现了奇迹。在这之前，紫色只能从植物和动物这些天然物质成分中进行萃取。

The choice was limited, the colors were dull and the prices were high. In some instances, the extraction process was painstaking and laborious, particularly for purple. "It had to be extracted from a type of shellfish that grew in select places in the Mediterranean," Lee Blaszczyk said. "The process was costly, messy, and a general pain.” Finally, as the world entered the post-Industrial Revolution phase, the manufacturing processes required to exploit the discovery were all in place and ready to go. This perfect storm was not lost on observers, as Simon Garfield notes in his book "Mauve." "At one of the many jubilee celebrations of Perkin's discovery," he wrote, "the chemist CJT Cronshaw told a gathering of the Society of Chemical Industry: 'If a fairy godmother had given Perkin the chance of choosing the precise moment for his discovery, he could not have selected a more appropriate or more auspicious time.'"

这些颜色选择有限，颜色单调，价格昂贵。在某些情况下，提取过程真可谓煞费苦心，特别是紫色，“它必须从生长在地中海特定地区的一种贝类中提取，”李·布拉茨奇克说。“这个过程代价高昂、混乱不堪，而且非常痛苦。” 最终，随着后工业革命时代的到来，社会终于具备了大规模批量生产的条件，紫色即将大规模面世。正如塞门.加菲尔 (Simon Garfield)在他的著作《淡紫色》(Mauve)中提到的一样，世人目睹了这场壮观的颜色风暴。他在书中写道，“在庆祝珀金发现苯胺紫的一场周年庆典上，化学家CJT Cronshaw向化学工业协会的人这样评价，’如果重新给珀金一次让他选择发现苯胺紫的机会，他一定找不到比当时更合适的时间点’”。

A fashion revolution

一场时尚革命

Perkin initially baptized his new color Tyrian purple, as it was known in the ancient world, but then settled for the more fashionable French word mauve."The color mauve was all the rage in the mid 1850s, as ladies of fashion adopted the new hues to come from the French and Swiss textile mills," said Lee Blaszczyk. "Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, was one of the leading trendsetters in Europe. On one occasion in the summer of 1857, she dressed in a 'plain lilac silk dress' and a charming hat trimmed with 'a small tuft of lilacs.' Ladies of fashion all around Paris emulated her.” Quick to capitalize on his find, Perkin set up a factory to produce the dye industrially, at the cost of dropping out of school and asking his father for financial support.

珀金最初将他发现的这种颜色命名为Tyrian purple，这是一个在古代被通俗使用的词语，后来他改用一个更流行的法语单词mauve进行命名。李·布拉茨奇克说：“mauve在19世纪50年代中期风靡一时，当时的女士们都痴迷于这种来自法国和瑞士纺织厂的新色调。”“拿破仑三世的妻子欧仁尼皇后（Empress Eugénie）是欧洲潮流引领者之一。1857年夏天的某个场合，她穿了一件’淡紫色丝绸连衣裙’，佩戴着一顶饰有’一小簇紫丁香’的帽子。这迅速成为巴黎爱美女士们争相模仿的造型。“珀金迅速利用这个发现，建立了一家工厂，开始大规模、工业化生产染料，为此他不惜辍学，还不得不向父亲寻求经济支持。

"In May 1857, one of his business associates in the textile industry wrote to him with congratulations that 'a rage for your color has set in among that all-powerful class of the community -- the Ladies,'" said Lee Blaszczyk. Perkin had not only created something entirely new and incredibly desirable, but he had done it through chemistry -- hardly seen as a money-making endeavor at the time. A plaque on the site of his London home says that he "founded science-based industry."

李·布拉茨奇克写道，“1857年5月，珀金纺织业的一位生意伙伴写信祝贺他，说道，’你的颜色，在最有权势的女性群体中掀起了一股热潮’”。珀金不仅发明了一种全新的、令人难以置信的、满足大众需求的东西，更意外的是，他还是通过化学实验发明了这项奇迹，因为化学实验在当时很少被看作是一种可以挣钱的方式。珀金伦敦住所的一块牌匾上写着，他“创立了以科学为基础的工业”。

Far-reaching impact

深远的影响

The mauve mania didn't last forever, and by 1870, other colors came in vogue. But the effects of Perkin's discovery were everlasting. "By laying the foundation for the synthetic organic chemicals industry, Perkin helped to revolutionize the world of fashion," said Lee Blaszczyk. His aniline dye solved two major problems: the fact that colors faded after exposure to light or washing, and the expense of making dye. "For the first time, a schoolteacher could afford to buy beautiful calicos in printed bright colors and sew a colorful dress for herself, maybe using the new Singer sewing machine imported from America," Lee Blaszczyk said. "The calico wouldn't fade after washing or drying in the sun."

淡紫色热潮并没有永远持续下去，1870年左右，其他颜色开始流行起来。尽管如此，珀金的发现所带来的影响却是永恒的。李·布拉茨奇克评价到，“他为合成有机化学工业奠定了基础，引起了时尚界的巨大变革”。他的苯胺染料解决了两个主要问题：一方面，避免了颜色在光照或洗涤后的褪色问题，另一方面，也极大地降低了制造成本。李·布拉茨奇克表示，“这是第一次，一位教师买得起印有鲜艳颜色的印花布，使用从美国进口的新型Singer缝纫机，可以为自己缝制一件漂亮的衣服。”“并且，这件衣服在洗涤暴晒后不会褪色。”

本新闻解读首发于2019年08月13日，新闻来源: CNN

新闻链接:

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/perkin-mauve-purple/index.html

作者: Jacopo Presco

文本难度：★★★★☆

话题难度：★★★☆☆

威廉·亨利·珀金

威廉·亨利·帕金(W.H.Jr.William Henry Perkin,Jr，1838~1907)英国人，化学家和发明家，合成染料的发明者。1856年，18岁的帕金在霍夫曼指导下制得的苯胺紫，他立即把这种染料送到一家染坊去试验对丝的染色性能，结果证实这是一种很有价值的染料。帕金决定申请这种染料的专利，并建立工厂。帕金给他的染料取名叫"mouve"。而淡紫色在法语中也叫"mouve"，并且淡紫色服装恰巧随之在法国、英国时髦起来。这样一来帕金的"mouve"牌染料生产供不应求，使这位年方20多岁的青年发明家发了大财。从生产mouve染料开始，用煤焦油作原料的人造染料工业得到了迅速发展，人造染料很快就取代了木兰、茜草之类的天然染料。这还为现在的塑料、化纤等合成化学工业拉开了序幕。所有这一切若说是起因于帕金的偶然发现，也是言不为过的。

在研究中，科学家们选择了4件在1865年至1898年之间制作的紫色丝质裙子作为分析对象。为什么专挑紫色衣服？这是因为，紫色染料在人工合成染料的发展史中确实有非常重要的地位。人类历史上第一个人工合成的染料就是紫色的，在1856年，化学家威廉·亨利·珀金（William Henry Perkin）意外地得到了苯胺紫这种可以持久染色的紫色物质（确切地说，是几种近似化合物组成的混合物）。在那时，天然的紫色染料十分昂贵，因此人工合成的紫色纺织染料在出现之后就迅速地打开了市场。在苯胺紫之后，碱性品红、甲基紫、苯并红紫等合成紫色染料也纷纷出现。由此可见，分析19世纪后半叶制成的紫色衣服，就对揭示合成染料的早期发展史很有帮助。

这些收藏在博物馆中的古董衣裙都是珍贵的文物，如何在分析的同时尽可能减少对它们的伤害就成了一个重要的课题。这一次，研究者们采取了薄层色谱、表面增强拉曼光谱和能量色散X射线光谱的分析方法。只需要取得毫克级的样品，就可以完成分析。“研究中用到的所有分析技术都可以在不到2毫克的材料取样量下完成，”参与这项研究的分子光谱学家杰弗里·丘奇（Jeffrey Church）介绍说，“这在分析具有历史意义的文物时非常重要。”

珀金发现，这种意外获得的紫色染料适合为丝绸和其他织物染色，颜色鲜艳而且牢固，不会因为水洗、日晒褪色。这是一个极具商业价值的发现，因为在此之前，染料商一直缺少能大范围普及同时又具有很好染色效果的紫色。在合成染料出现之前，不少天然染料具有工艺繁琐、产量少或者容易褪色的缺点。比如说一种著名的紫色天然染料骨螺紫，正如名字所说，它来自一些骨螺的腺体分泌物。用骨螺紫染色的布料非常美，但它产量稀少、价格昂贵，绝对不是普通人能拥有的时尚。在这样的背景下，珀金为苯胺紫申请专利，并迅速将其推向市场。虽然在1860年代，就已经有新的紫色合成染料逐渐替代了苯胺紫，但这个重要开端依然会被载入史册。（苯胺紫染色的丝织品）

从这里还诞生了一个奖项：珀金奖章（Perkin Medal），这个奖项为纪念苯胺紫发现50年而在1906年设立，由美国化学工业学会颁发，它也被视为美国化工业界的最高荣誉。

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