William Perkin – Heriot-Watt University connection to the invention of modern synthetic chemistry.

A bit of lighthearted fun for this article - I'm very fond of the history of science and may do more.

Whilst wandering the Heriot-Watt campus at Riccarton I came across a familiar name amongst the no doubt worthy, but to me as yet unknown, great people that the many campus buildings are named after. I was confident that William Perkin was an old and familiar friend. However, the image displayed in the building was that of a different man to the bearded God-like figure I knew and I was slightly taken aback.

This William was W.H. Perkin Jr, son of the illustrious Sir W.H. Perkin Sr., who I knew as inventor of the first synthetic dye and launching modern industrial chemistry. William Jr was in fact the first professor of chemistry at Heriot-Watt College (1887-1892) before moving downward to University of Manchester and then Oxford.

Mauveine was discovered in 1856 by his then 18-year-old father and was to launch a new and prosperous industry for the Perkins, and William Jr later carried on further research into heterocyclic colour compounds (coincidentally something I touched on with my dissertation in the final year of my Colour Chemistry Degree).

Perkin Jr was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1890 and was awarded their Davy Medal in 1904 and their Royal Medal in 1925. He was president of the Chemical Society from 1913 to 1916 and was awarded their Longstaff Medal in 1900. In 1910, he was made an honorary graduate of the University of Edinburgh, receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws (wiki)

William Jr’s brother Arthur G. Perkin was professor of Colour Chemistry at University of Leeds.