Scheele’s Green - The Shunning of Green in the Victorian Era
The Great Enlightenment of the 18th century brought science to the forefront of industry, and with this came the replacement of artists pigments with cheaper, lab created hues. Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist, was one such creator on this front.
Sheele was gifted in science, but always had issues with follow through. Science was a passion, his “side-hustle,” but debts and responsibilities never allowed him to pursue it full time. This did not impede his thirst for discovery however, as Scheele always found time to experiment.
He was the first to discover many things, including oxygen and chlorine, but Scheele’s lack of follow-through almost always cost him the discovery credit. His first marketable creation, a yellow color that he neglected to patet, was co-opted by another capitalist, James Turner, who made a fortune selling it as “Turner’s Yellow.”
Accepting the loss and never giving up his inventive spirit, Sheele continued to experiment in his spare time. A year before the American Revolution, he created something new. Taking notes from Turner, he named it after himself: Scheele’s Green.
The color was affordable and available. Because of this, manufacturers began using it in everything from wallpaper to birthday candles. But Scheele’s Green had a secret.
The pigment was made with sodium carbonate, copper sulfate, and arsenious oxide -- a toxic combination. Scheele had discovered it accidentally while experimenting with arsenic.
As the pigment vehicle deteriorated, it released arsenic particles and arsine gasses into the air.
The grim reality was: Scheele’s Green was a killer.
Scheele’s Green’s deadly nature remained fairly silent until the death of 19 year-old Matilda Scheurer in 1861. Matilda was a “fluffer,” (no, not that kind.) She dusted artificial leaves with green powder made from the pigment, ingesting the poison with every breath. Needless to say, this exposure had a horrifying outcome. As Alison Matthews David writes in her book, Fashion Victims:
“... the whites of her eyes had turned green, and she told her doctor that “everything she looked at was green.” ...she died, with “an expression of great anxiety” ... An autopsy confirmed that her fingernails had turned a very pronounced green and the arsenic had reached her stomach, liver, and lungs. ... in an article entitled “Pretty Poison-Wreaths” [written] two weeks later, “It was proved by medical testimony that she had been ill from the same cause four times within the last eighteen months. Under such circumstances as these, death is evidently about as accidental as it is when resulting from a railway collision occasioned by arrangements known to be faulty.” To the nonmedical public, it seemed that Scheurer’s death was predictable and entirely preventable and that her life had been cruelly sacrificed to wealthy women’s desire for fashionable adornments.”
Production was the main priority. Customers wanted green, and manufacturers were going to meet that demand. This is the supply and demand outcome that all systems built around capital rely upon. Matilda was sacrificed to this system, and with her death ruled as “accidental” instead of “occupational,” it appeared as though the system was trying to cover it up.
Beyond production, the dangers of Scheele’s green continued to threaten anyone with a penchant for the color green. Theory even has it that this particular shade of green may have been responsible for the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. While Napoleon’s cause of death changes depending on who you ask, two facts remain consistent. His body was saturated in arsenic, and ulcerative bleeding from stomach cancer weakened him substantially. Bonaparte’s favorite color was reputedly green, and that’s the color paint chosen for his walls when exiled to the island of Elba. If true, the moss, mold, and mildew created in this island climate would eat at the paint, exacerbating the release of arsenic into the air. But that’s just a theory. A color theory. Annnnnnnd…..
Whatever the case, this wake of people lost to a color had an enormous effect on perception of the color green. This is when green really started to fall out of vogue. In a 2005 documentary about Chanel, Madame Dominique states, “Seamstresses don’t like green,” She follows up with, “But I just don’t think it’s pretty. It isn’t out of superstition,” tacitly acknowledging that there is, in fact, a superstiton around green to this day. It does not stop at fashion, as the Scottish aren’t keen on green either. A Glasgow University Professor in 1954 stating "Fewer green sweets are sold in Scotland than in any other country." It’s clear that he himself must have wanted to see more green candies, frustratingly stating, "It is astonishing why the idea of green colour in confections should suggest the stupid impression that arsenic is present".
Carl Scheele did have his moral qualms about the production of his namesake green, which he expressed in a 1777 letter to a colleague — one year prior to mass production. In summary, he was worried about the paint, and felt that consumers should be aware of its toxic nature.
Despite those worries, the pigment went into production with no warning, bearing his name the entire time. Victoria Finaly gives reason to this decision in her book, “Color: A Natural History,” “...what’s a little arsenic when you’ve got a great new color to sell?”
Scheele’s Green was finally replaced as a pigment with Cobalt Green which was discovered in 1780, but did not come to wide use initially because of its low tinctorial power. You can still find Sheele’s Green out there in the world, but under its generic name. Copper arsenite is used in all sorts of things, like insecticide, fungicide, rodenticide, and wood preservative. There’s probably some between your walls right now.
Sources
A Source Book in Chemistry 1400 - 1900 - https://books.google.com/books?id=zXZKfpRHLCcC&pg=PA101&dq=carl+wilhelm+scheele&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilivWcj7bkAhUSO60KHTcVCEwQ6AEwCHoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=carl%20wilhelm%20scheele&f=false
Color: A Natural History of the Palette - https://books.google.com/books?id=X0iTdXt1XoMC&pg=PA395&dq=victoria+finlay+color+scheele+google+books&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-krTjl7bkAhUQIKwKHZ43DFAQ6AEwAHoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=scheele&f=false
Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present- https://books.google.com/books?id=uZdlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=No+colour+was+more+toxic+than+the+verdant+pigment+that+killed+the+girl+Matilda&source=bl&ots=kzHNbUoa6X&sig=ACfU3U1CIuhTbOfdRLQPaX9Eat8zFcSZ0Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ_r-8hrbkAhVDhq0KHSJNAhcQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=No%20colour%20was%20more%20toxic%20than%20the%20verdant%20pigment%20that%20killed%20the%20girl%20Matilda&f=false
How Emerald Green Became Fashionable, Despite its Poisonous Past - http://kvadratinterwoven.com/emerald-green
Scheele’s Green, the Color of Fake Foliage and Death - https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/02/scheeles-green-the-color-of-fake-foliage-and-death/
Could this Wallpaper Kill You? - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/could-this-wallpaper-kill-you-victorian-britains-lethal-obsessio/
Arsenic and the World’s Worst Mass Poisoning - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=104
The History of Green Dye Is a History of Death - https://www.racked.com/2017/3/17/14914840/green-dye-history-deathHow Poisonous Green Pigments Terrorized Victorian Fashion - https://pictorial.jezebel.com/the-arsenic-dress-how-poisonous-green-pigments-terrori-1738374597
The Manufacture of Paint: A Practical Handbook for Paint Manufacturers, Merchants, and Painters - https://books.google.com/books?id=fmxZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=tinctorial+power+%22paint%22&source=bl&ots=ghZWW09juy&sig=ACfU3U00_9kJLl6DwirA3iuJn03HPMwzlw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRr6SHwd7kAhULLa0KHQJNA3AQ6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=tinctorial%20power%20%22paint%22&f=false