11 Scientific Discoveries That Were Total Accidents

So quinine (the ingredient that makes your gin and tonic bitter) was doing a marvellous job of keeping malaria at bay all over the Empire, ensuring that the British stayed on top form to continue with their jolly regime of country-stealing.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a ruddy effort to extract the anti-malarial drug from the bark of the quina tree, and so the scientific world set about trying to recreate it in the lab.

The 18-year-old chemistry student, William Perkin, was working away at it in his lab over the Easter break, mixing various substances together with the chemical toluidine and quite frankly getting nowhere. Mainly all that happened is that he produced a wide range of unattractive sludges at the bottom of the flask, none of which were anything like quinine.

Then, one day, he noticed that one of those sludges was leeching an attractive purple colour that stained everything. Perkin had just accidentally discovered the first synthetic dye: Mauve.

It was an instant hit and Victorian society suddenly took on a shocking, purple hue. Mauve dresses, mauve capes, mauve bonnets, mauve handkerchiefs, everyone loved mauve.

More than just a fashion statement, however, the invention of synthetic dyes has also transformed the medical world including helping to develop many cancer treatments.

Oh, and no one has ever really managed to come up with an effective synthetic quinine. It turns out it's actually much easier to extract it from tree bark after all.