science · 11 October 1910 · 114 years ago
death
Died 11 Oct 1910 at age 76 (born 13 Feb 1834).
German chemist who invented new industrial chemical processes that enabled the German company BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik) to become the leading manufacturer of synthetic dyestuffs for two decades from 1869. Before joining them (1866), he benefitted from time he spent in England, working on mauveine (the first synthetic dye) and learning about the new synthetic dyes William Perkins had developed. Caro improved upon those methods of synthesis. Caro propelled the rise of the German dye industry, which led to Germany’s wider dominance in industrial chemistry, and the emergence of the industrial research laboratory. He helped synthesize artificial alizarin (a natural dye), discovered methylene blue (1877), the first acidic azo dye (1878), and the powerful oxidizing agent, Caro's acid, H2SO5 (1898).
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