Man's earliest endeavours to enhance the brightness of white objects in everyday use, especially clothing, led to the invention of various bleaching processes. KRAIS'S discovery in 1929 that the natural substance esculin could be applied to textiles to give whites of unprecedented brilliance led to the industrial development of fluorescent whitening agents (FWA's). The limited effectiveness of esculin, a glycoside of 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin prompted research which led to the synthesis of other compounds of the same class, many of which have proved useful as whiteners; though the really broad developments of the 1940's stemmed from the synthesis of the 4,4'-diaminostilbene-2,2'disulfonic acid derivatives which are sill the most important groups of FWAs.
人类最早致力于提高日常使用的白色物品（尤其是衣物）的白度，这导致了各种漂白工艺的发明。1929年克赖斯发现天然物质七叶苷可应用于纺织品，使白色具有前所未有的亮度，这引发了荧光增白剂（FWA）的工业发展。七叶苷是6,7-二羟基香豆素的糖苷，其效果有限，促使人们进行研究，从而合成了同一类的其他化合物，其中许多已被证明可用作增白剂；不过，20世纪40年代真正广泛的发展源于4,4'-二氨基二苯乙烯-2,2'-二磺酸衍生物的合成，这类衍生物至今仍是最重要的荧光增白剂类别。
