Low toxicity
Varies by specific compound; some early aniline dyes raised health and safety concerns for factory workers, prompting later industrial regulation.
Modern synthetic dyes are subject to industrial safety and environmental regulation not present in the 19th century; individual compounds vary and are not itemised here.
- Source material
- Coal tar derivatives (aniline and related compounds)
- Geography
- Primarily developed in Britain and Germany
- Earliest documented use
- From 1856 (mauveine) onward
- Cost & availability
- Rapidly made a wide range of vivid, previously rare or expensive colours affordable and available at industrial scale for the first time.
- Production (historical summary)
- Synthesised from coal-tar derivatives in an industrial chemical process.
- Stability & lightfastness
- Varied significantly between individual dyes; later synthetic dyes generally improved on colourfastness. (variable)