Mondo Knows Facts
Prussian blue was the first synthetic pigment
A lab accident around 1706 produced a stable blue nobody had made before A colour maker named Johann Jacob Diesbach was preparing a red lake when contaminated potash gave him a deep blue instead. The pigment, an iron cyanide compound, was cheap, lightfast and widely adopted by painters. It also gave blueprint drawings their colour. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Flame tests identify metals by colourHeating a salt makes its metal atoms emit a signature colourTransition metals form brightly coloured compoundsCopper sulfate is blue because its d electrons absorb part of the visible spectrumAnthocyanins turn autumn leaves redAs chlorophyll fades, red and purple pigments in the leaf become visibleTyrian purple came from sea snailsMurex molluscs yield a dye so costly it became a mark of emperorsSome colours come from structure, not pigmentTiny repeating shapes in feathers and shells reflect certain wavelengths by interferenceFluorescent things glow only while litFluorescent materials absorb short wavelengths and re-emit them almost at once
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Tags: chemistry, colour, pigments
Prussian blue was the first synthetic pigment: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A lab accident around 1706 produced a stable blue nobody had made before. The figure is taken from American Chemical Society, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.