ABSTRACT
From the 1820s onwards, impressive advances were made in Europe in the discovery, isolation and elucidation of organic compounds. One of the effects of the rapid accumulation and dissemination of this knowledge was that, while 'in the 1850s manufacture had been empirical - by the end of the next decade it was becoming scientific' (Haber, 1958: 81). These advances spawned a new industry, that of synthetic dyestuffs, which evolved rapidly from the 1860s onwards. Behind this rapid evolution were advances, trends and new research priorities in pure chemistry, fashion and medicine, and the need to dispose of coal tar, an industrial waste product that was produced in high volumes during this age (Stolz and Schwaiberger, 1987). While the scientific advances of the time made this new industry possible, its initial attractiveness as a potentially profitable business was due to the high demand for new colours, especially in French high society. -But its beginnings were to some extent serendipitous.
