Purple flags are absent from the world because natural purple dye was historically extremely expensive, requiring over 10,000 murex snails to produce just 1 gram, making it more costly than gold and reserved for royalty; this scarcity meant purple was never used in flag design between the 1200s and 1800s, and even when William Perkin accidentally created synthetic purple dye in 1856, it was too late since countries had already chosen their flag colors.
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Deep Dive
Why are there no purple flags? I Explore the world with VerumAdded:
I have a question for you.
Look at the flags of the world.
Red, blue, green, [music] yellow, white, black. Not one of them is purple.
Nearly 200 countries, hundreds of flags, thousands of years of history, but not one [music] purple.
Why?
This little creature knows the answer.
For thousands of years, purple was not just a color. It was power. It was royalty, and it was wealth.
Roman emperors wore it.
>> [music] >> Kings wore it. High priests wore it.
Because purple was more expensive than gold.
It was made from snails.
To make just 1 g of purple dye, [music] you needed more than 10,000 snails.
And that 1 g cost three times its weight in gold.
This is Felix's Wiggly Room.
We call it the scary place of creepy crawlies.
Felix, I need the snail.
You're not going to kill my snail, are you?
Felix, where are you?
I just need to show him to someone briefly.
This is a murex sea snail from the Mediterranean Sea near an ancient city, which is now called [music] Lebanon.
Inside the snail is a milky liquid.
If you leave it in sunlight, something extraordinary happens.
White changes to yellow-green, to red, to purple.
The most beautiful purple the world has ever seen.
But to make 1 g, we need 10,000 snails.
Okay, he is going back in his tank right now.
>> [music] >> Thank you, Felix. And it is the Wiggly Room, not the scary place of creepy crawlies.
It is absolutely the scary place of creepy crawlies.
Most flags were designed between the 1200s and the 1800s. Red was easy, blue was easy, green, yellow, white, black, all easy. But purple?
>> [music] >> Impossible.
Even the richest kingdoms couldn't afford enough purple fabric for a flag.
So, purple stayed on the robes of emperors, not on the flags of nations.
In 1856, an 18-year-old student named William Perkin was trying to make medicine for malaria.
He failed. But while failing, he accidentally created the world's first synthetic purple dye.
Suddenly, purple was cheap, and it was available everywhere.
But it was too late because every country had already chosen its flag. The colors were locked, and nobody went back to add purple.
One tiny snail, 10,000 lives, three times its weight in gold. That is why there are no purple flags.
Color is not just color. It is chemistry. It is history. And it is power.
>> [music] >> And sometimes, it is 10,000 snails.
I'm Verum, and this has been explore the world with Verum.
Next time, why do some countries drive on the left [music] and some on the right? And is there a right way at all?
See you soon.
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