This is pre-recorded Talk and is currently available to view on-demand until the end of August 2023 for all RSN International Summer School attendees.

Colours as dyes had been developed from natural sources since the earliest times and even by the beginning of the 19^th century, new colours were begin developed but predominantly from a natural source, although more chemicals were being used. But it took an 18 year-old student of the British Royal College of Chemistry to find the ‘new’ way to achieve colour, through a waste product from the coal tar industry. This transformed the making of colour and led to an outburst of new colours, because this was the exciting new science and many people wanted to get involved.

This lecture will reveal more of this development, the colours that were discovered, why the new colours were favoured over the old and how the new colours were named. The talk will be presented by Dr Susan Kay-Williams and illustrated with examples from her personal collection of dye charts and sample books.