CI6.5-7.
6 – Reading – WB – U2
An invention to dye for: the colour purple
A 19th century research chemist was trying to make medicine when, instead, he came up with a
coloured dye that has ensured the world is a brighter place.
A
Of all the colours, purple has perhaps the most powerful connotations. From the earliest cultures
to the present day, people have sought to harness its visual power to mark themselves out as
better than those around them. From bishops to kings, pop stars to fashion models, its wearing
has been a calculated act of showing off. In ancient Rome, for example, purple was such a
revered colour that only the emperor was allowed to wear it. Indeed, an emperor who was
referred to as porphyrogenitus, (‘born to the purple’) was especially important, since this meant
that he had inherited his position through family connections rather than seizing power through
military force.
B
But why purple? At that time, purple dye was an expensive substance produced in a complicated,
foul-smelling and time-consuming process. This involved boiling thousands of molluscs in water
in order to harvest their glandular juices. The technique had originally been developed by the
Phoenicians over a thousand years previously, and it hadn’t changed since. Cheaper but poorer
quality purple dyes could be made from lichens using an equally messy and unpleasant
procedure, but they were not as bright, and the colour quickly faded. It was no surprise,
therefore, that good purple dye was a rare and precious thing, and clothes dyed purple were
beyond the financial means of most people.
C
However, times have changed. In the great consumer democracy of the 21st century, even the
most humble citizen can choose it as the colour of their latest outfit. For that privilege, we must
thank a young 19th century research chemist, William Perkin. A talented 15-year-old when he
entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London in 1853, Perkin was immediately appointed
as laboratory assistant to his tutor, August Wilhelm von Hofmann. He became determined to
prove Hofmann’s claim that quinine, a drug used to treat fevers such as malaria, could be
synthesised in a laboratory. However, rather than the cure desperately needed for people dying
from malaria in tropical countries, he produced little more than a black, sticky mess that turned
purple when dissolved in industrial alcohol. Perkin’s experiments could have been a complete
waste of time, but to his surprise and, ultimately, financial benefit, his purple liquid turned out to
be a long-lasting dye that was to transform fashion.
D
Perkin repeated his experiments in an improvised laboratory in his garden shed, perfecting the
process for making the substance he had called mauveine after the French mallow plant. It was,
says Simon Garfield, the author of Mauve which details Perkin’s life and work, an astonishing
breakthrough. ‘Once you could do that you could make colour in a factory from chemicals rather
than insects or plants. It opened up the prospect of mass-produced artificial dyes and made
CI6.5-7.6 – Reading – WB – U2
Perkin one of the first scientists to bridge the gap between pure chemistry and its industrial
applications.’ It didn’t take long for the chemist, still only 18, to capitalise on his creation,
patenting the product, convincing his father and brother to back it with savings, and finding a
manufacturer who could help him bring it rapidly to the market. The buying public loved it, and
clothes coloured with purple started appearing in shops up and down the country.
Appropriately, considering the origins of Perkin’s colour, he was to receive a helping hand from
the two most important women of the day. Queen Victoria caused a sensation when she stepped
out at the Royal Exhibition in 1862 wearing a silk gown dyed with mauveine. In Paris, Napoleon
III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, amazed the court when she was seen wearing it. To propel the
scientist further on the way to a great fortune, the fashion of the time was for broad skirts that,
happily for him, needed a lot of his revolutionary new dye.
E
Perkins, ever the serious scientist, would have been among the first to point out that his mauve is
just one of a range of colours described in everyday language as purple. Not itself a true colour
of the spectrum – that position is given to indigo and violet – purple normally refers to those
colours which inhabit the limits of human perception in the area between red and violet. Newton
excluded the colour from his colour wheel. Scientists today talk about the ‘line of purples’ which
include violet, mauve, magenta, indigo and lilac.
F
In the alternative medical practice of colour therapy, which practitioners say can trace its origins
back to ancient India, the ‘purple range’ colours of indigo and violet are vital. They refer to
spiritual energy centres known as chakras and are situated in the head. The colours and their
‘medical’ qualities were first officially listed by the Swiss scientist Dr Max Luscher, who said
that appropriately coloured lights, applied to specific chakras, could treat ailments from
depression to grief. Julia Kubler is one of Britain’s leading colour therapists and has been using
colours to treat patients at her clinic at Manningtree, Essex, for 15 years. Purple, she says, ‘is
consistent with intuition and higher understanding, with spirituality and meditation. It combines
the coolness of blue with a bit of red that makes it not just passive but active.’
It is hardly the most outlandish of claims for this most enigmatic of colours. Variously touted as
the colour of everything from insanity to equality, it is enjoying a new role as the symbol of
political compromise. Purple may have had its origins in the ancient world, but thanks to a young
chemist, it still has a brilliant future.
Questions 1–6
The reading passage has six sections, A–F.
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
CI6.5-7.6 – Reading – WB – U2
List of headings
i From the laboratory to the High Street
ii Seeking royal support
iii An unexpected but fortunate side result
iv The healing power of purple
v An old problem
vi Standing out from the crowd
vii Finding an alternative cure for a common illness
viii Part of a larger family
ix An ancient manufacturing practice
1 Section A _______________
2 Section B _______________
3 Section C _______________
4 Section D _______________
5 Section E _______________
6 Section F _______________
Questions 7-10
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Questions 7-8
What TWO points does the writer make about the colour purple and purple dye before
William Perkin's creation?
A It was only used to colour clothes.
B It was originally produced for Roman emperors.
C It was not easy to make.
D There were many different techniques used to make it.
E Some purple dyes were inferior to others.
Questions 9-10
What TWO things about William Perkin are true, according to the passage?
A He taught Chemistry at a college in London.
B He believed that quinine could be artificially produced.
C He extracted the substance for his dye from a common plant.
D He quickly realised the financial benefits of his new creation.
CI6.5-7.6 – Reading – WB – U2
E He set a new fashion trend for large skirts.
Questions 11-14
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
The purple range of colours plays an essential role in colour therapy, a form of 11
…………….Colour therapy is said to have originated many years ago in 12 ……………. and is
still used by colour therapists such as Julia Kubler, who uses it to 13 …………….. with various
health [Link] to Kubler, purple 14 …………….. aspects of two colours, making it
both active and passive.
Đáp án:
1. vi
2. ix
3. iii
4. i
5. viii
6. iv
7. C
8. E
9. B
10. D
11. medical practice
12. (ancient) India
13. treat patients
14. combines