 From this attempt, Alcian blue (Ingrain blue 1) was first synthesized by the ICI dyestuffs department under N. H. Haddock and C. Wood in the early 1940s and patented in 1947, originally as a textile dye.In 1950 it was used by Steedman as a selective dye for mucins.While the popularity of Alcian blue expanded exponentially, the difficulty involved in its production due to environmentally hazardous intermediate steps made its availability difficult and ICI stopped producing it by 1973.