W. Perkin, E, C. Nicholson 201 



method. The Greenford factory, however, was ready to 

 start work at once, and until 1873 there was practically no 

 competition with the coal-tar dyes produced in this country. 

 In his report on the exhibition of 1862, Hofmann 

 wrote : 



" England will, beyond question, at no distant date 

 become, herself, the greatest colour- producing country 

 in the world; nay, by the strangest of revolutions, she 

 may, ere long, send her coal-derived blues to indigo- 

 growing India; her tar-distilled crimson to cochineal- 

 producing Mexico, and her fossil substitutes of quercitron 

 and safflower to China, Japan and other countries, whence 

 these articles are now derived." 



This is not the place to discuss the causes which have 

 falsified Hofmann's prophecy. The " near future " of his 

 prediction is passed, but another future lies ahead of us. 



Perkin also carried on investigations of a great value in 

 pure science, even during the busy time of his industrial 

 enterprises. He sold his factory in 1874, devoting himself to 

 the time of his death to a life of scientific research. 



Among the pupils working in the laboratories at George 

 Street we find Edward Chambers Nicholson (1827-1890), 

 of whom Hofmann, at a later period, wrote : " He united 

 the genius of the manufacturer with the habits of a scientific 

 investigator." In his first research he determined the con- 

 stitution of strychnine. After leaving the Royal College, 

 he became associated with Messrs. Maule and Simpson in 

 the preparation of various chemical products, turning his 

 attention ultimately to colouring matters. His name is 

 chiefly connected with the manufacture of " regina purple " 

 and " Nicholson's blue." 



A worthy successor of Perkin and Nicholson might, 

 with proper opportunities, have been found in Raphael 

 Meldola (1849-1915), who, between 1879 and 1885, made 

 important discoveries of new dye-stuffs. But though he 

 was during eight years connected with a firm manufacturing 

 colours, he received little encouragement from his employers, 

 and his work bore no immediate fruit. Meldola always held 

 the opinion that the decline of the colour industry in 

 England was not due, as is commonly asserted, to the 



