William Perkin is considered to be the father of the synthetic dye and perfume industries.

Perkin was born in London, England, and as a child attended the City of London School. There he came into contact with Michael Faraday who fostered his fledgling fascination with chemistry. In 1853, Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry where, at seventeen, he was named an assistant to the school's director, a renowned German chemist named August Wilhelm von Hofmann. Although Hofmann was a brilliant chemist, he was awkward with laboratory work and depended on talented assistants to help him in his research on coal tar and its derivatives.

It was under Hofmann's tutelage in 1856 that Perkin experienced his first major success. That year, Perkin spent his Easter vacation attempting to synthesize quinine from aniline, a coal-tar derivative. Although he failed to produce artificial quinine, the results of his experiment determined the course...