The Victorian Pigment That Was as Deadly as It Was Desirable
“Britain was bathed in green,” and it would take decades to get it out of homes.
Throughout history, humanity has been obsessed with colored pigments. We used them to color fabrics, furnish the home, boast status and wealth, and innumerable other things. Some hues were more straightforward than others to replicate. Greens were a particularly tricky pigment. Natural sources were often muted and didn’t have the same vibrancy that occurred in nature. Copper was commonly used as a green pigment but would often skew more blue or teal. There was a high demand for a more intense green pigment. One that appeared had been plucked from a lush forest or a great emerald.
In 1775, a Swedish chemist named Carl Wilhelm Scheele achieved the feat. He created a rich and beautiful shade of emerald green that he obtained by mixing copper and arsenic. He called his vibrant green pigment Scheele’s Green. Scheele’s Green relatively inexpensive to make, and as such, it became a choice pigment. It was used in colored paper, wallpaper, carpets, fabrics, paint, candles, children’s toys, and even food coloring. It was the most brilliant and durable pigment, but due to the copper oxidizing, it did fade over time.
