There are purple clothes, purple handbags, purple bicycles, purple furniture, and even purple computers! So purple is one of the most popular colors today. But in the past, purple was a very expensive and unusual color. Let's take a look at the rich1of the color purple.
Some scientists believe that the first plants to appear on Earth over 500 million years ago2looked purple, not green plants. Today are green because they use chlorophyll (叶绿素) to produce energy. 3these early plants probably used something called retinal, which is a dark purple color.
During the time of the Roman Empire (27 BC-476AD), it was very difficult to make purple dye (染料). The dye came from sea snails (海螺). But 10,000 dead sea snails 4you just one gram of purple dye... as well as a very bad smell! This5purple dye was called Tyrian purple, and it was the preferred 6of emperors.
In 16th-century England, purple was7for the king's family members. Queen Elizabeth I's clothes were purple, but ordinary people were not allowed to8the clothes in this color.
In 1856, William Perkin, an 18-year-old science student noticed something strange while doing an experiment.
The chemicals (化学药品) he used to clean his instruments mixed with the chemicals he used in his experiment and produced a bright purple color. This9led Perkin to start a company using this chemical mixture to make purple dye. The dye was much10than sea-snail dye. Thanks to Perkin, now anyone can afford to wear purple clothes.
