DYEING/3

By the 1820s the chemical make-up of carminic acid and alizarin was already known, and soon after production of synthetic dyes began.

Indeed, in 1841 aniline was synthesized, and subsequently in 1856 William Henry Perkin obtained malvina, the first chemical dye; in 1859 fuchsin was invented, and a few years later dark blue and green derivatives were derived from it, and in 1868 alizarin was synthesized as well.

Even more complex processes followed in the next decades, when the leading role in this research shifted from England and France to Germany and Switzerland.

The result was also a change in dying techniques, for example a specilization in dry dyeing, and in product hygiene, replacing the most damaging substances with innocuous or at least less toxic ones.