CHEMIST

William Henry Perkin

1838 - 1907

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Sir William Henry Perkin (12 March 1838 – 14 July 1907) was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first commercial synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, he became successful in the field of dyes after his first discovery at the age of 18. Perkin set up a factory to produce the dye industrially. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. William Henry Perkin is the 319th most popular chemist (down from 274th in 2019), the 1,423rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 1,076th in 2019) and the 43rd most popular British Chemist.

Perkin is most famous for discovering the first synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856.

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, William Henry Perkin ranks 319 out of 602Before him are Fritz London, Anselme Payen, Smithson Tennant, Aziz Sancar, Yuan T. Lee, and Michael Smith. After him are Dan Shechtman, Tapputi, Alexander Butlerov, Charles Friedel, Roger Y. Tsien, and Torbern Bergman.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1838, William Henry Perkin ranks 32Before him are Prince Louis, Count of Trani, 11th Dalai Lama, Konstanty Kalinowski, James Craig Watson, Marià Fortuny, and Ōkuma Shigenobu. After him are Fredrik Idestam, Jean-Paul Laurens, Jules Brunet, Ludwig Gumplowicz, Gustav von Schmoller, and Edwin Abbott Abbott. Among people deceased in 1907, William Henry Perkin ranks 31Before him are Hermann Carl Vogel, Qiu Jin, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Charles W. Alcock, William Le Baron Jenney, and Henry Steel Olcott. After him are Franz Sacher, Carola of Vasa, Mizzi Kaspar, Stanisław Wyspiański, Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, and John Kerr.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Henry Perkin ranks 1,423 out of 8,785Before him are John McLaughlin (1942), Lord Alfred Douglas (1870), Michael Smith (1932), Duncan Edwards (1936), Catherine Ashton (1956), and James Lind (1716). After him are William Booth (1829), Vinnie Jones (1965), Martin Frobisher (1535), Victoria Beckham (1974), Alan Watts (1915), and Mick Taylor (1949).

Among CHEMISTS In United Kingdom

Among chemists born in United Kingdom, William Henry Perkin ranks 43Before him are Thomas Graham (1805), Richard J. Roberts (1943), Thomas Andrews (1813), William Henry (1774), Smithson Tennant (1761), and Michael Smith (1932). After him are Tim Hunt (1943), Frederick Abel (1827), Martin Lowry (1874), William Prout (1785), Edward Frankland (1825), and Charles Macintosh (1766).