Today on Google’s home page is a special Google logo, a Google Doodle, for the British Chemist who accidental discovered the first aniline dye: the purple mauveine, Sir William Henry Perkin. It would be his 180th birthday today. He made it possible to color clothing and other materials in an economic manner.

He was born in London on March 12, 1838 and passed at the age of 69 in London on July 14, 1907.

Wikipedia said “through failing 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.”

Hence the people wearing purple in the Google Doodle, a color too expensive for most people to wear, he made accessible to almost all. Google wrote:

Forum discussion at Google+.