Carl Scheele’s pigments
The intense experimental activity of Carl Scheele (1742-1786) embraced the fields of organic and inorganic chemistry, obtaining incredible results in his short life (he died at the age of forty), having the back rooms of the pharmacies where he worked. There are Scheele’s discoveries that have had a great impact, such as the discovery of oxygen on the development of chemistry, his research on phosphorus in the Swedish match industry, or his investigations on the photochemistry of silver salts on the development of photography etc. But there is an experimental result by Scheele, not among the most important in terms of scientific relevance, which however had the most impact on art, fashion and costume in general. It is the invention of the green dye which then took the name green of Scheele, the link between the pigments and Scheele was the unexpected result of research that had a different purpose.