Google Doodle pays tribute to Sir William Henry Perkin who revolutionised the world of fashion quite by accident

Google honoured British chemist Sir William Henry Perkin with a doodle on what would have been his 180th birthday. Mr Perkin may not be a familiar name to many people, but the significance of his work lives on to this very day - he is best known for his accidental discovery of the first aniline dye: the purple mauveine.

Interestingly, Perkin made the discovery quite At the age of 15, Perkin joined the Royal Collage of Chemistry under the guidance of August Wilhelm von Hofmann, who had the time had published a hypothesis on how it might be possible to synthesise quinine, an expensive natural substance much in demand for the treatment of malaria.

While experimenting, Perkin discovered that aniline could be partly transformed into a crude mixture which, when extracted with alcohol, produced a substance with an intense purple colour. Perkin, who had an interest in painting and photography, immediately became enthusiastic about this result and carried out further trials.

When he was 18, he obtained the Intellectual Property RIght for it.

Perkin could not have chosen a better time or place for his discovery: England was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, largely driven by advances in the production of textiles; the science of chemistry had advanced to the point where it could have a major impact on industrial processes; and coal tar, the major source of his raw material, was an abundant by-product of the process for making coal gas and coke.