Out of the open country, in again among ruinous buildings, solitary farms, dye-works, tanneries, and the like, cottages in twosand threes, avenues of leafless trees.

He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar, who assured him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth it if the colour remained fast.

Utilising the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost unlimited byproduct of London's gas street lighting, the dye works began producing the world's first synthetically dyed material in 1857.