Aspirin discovered during experiment with waste product
Friedrich Bayer was born in 1825, the only son in a family of six children. His father was a weaver and dyer, and Bayer followed in his footsteps. In 1848, he opened his own dye business, which became very successful. In the past, all dyes had come from organic materials, but in 1856 coal tar dyes were discovered. Bayer and Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer, saw great potential in coal tar, and in 1863 they formed Friedrich Bayer et Compagnie to manufacture the dyes.
Hoffmann's Aspirin
Bayer died on May 6, 1880, while the company was still in the fabric dye business. The company went on to employ chemists to come up with innovative dyes and products and in 1897 that's exactly what one of the chemists, Felix Hoffmann, did. While experimenting with a waste product of one of the dye components to find relieve for his father's rheumatism, Hoffmann chemically synthesised a stable form of salicylic acid powder. The compound became the active ingredient in a pharmaceutical wonder product: Aspirin. The title was named "a" from acetyl, and "spir" from the spirea plant, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria, also known as Spiraea ulmaria), the source of salicin.
All this event happened in my second hometown Wuppertal!
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