Papers on etherification and on the constitution of salts / by Alexander W. Williamson ... (1850-1856).

  • Williamson, Alexander W. (Alexander William), 1824-1904.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Papers on etherification and on the constitution of salts / by Alexander W. Williamson ... (1850-1856). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    11/72 (page 7)
    THEORY OF ^THERIFICATION. * f WHEN sulphuric acid is brought in contact with alcohol under certain circumstances, a new arrangement is effected in the elements of the alcohol, which divide into two groups, forming aether and water. Now it is well known that the process by which this change is effected may be represented in two ways, the difference of which consists in their respectively selecting for starting-point a different view of the constitution of alcohol. According to the one view, an atom of alcohol weighs 23, and is made up of H*' O ; so that to form aether, two atoms of it are needed, one of which takes C^H* from the other, setting free the water with which these elements were combined ; whereas, according to the other view, alcohol weighs 46, and contains aether and water. These are not the only points of difference which are urged ; but they are the most real and tangible, and their consideration is sufficient for our present purpose. If by any direct fact we could decide which of these two expressions is the correct one, the ground would be clear for an examination of the process of aetherification itself In order to show more clearly the true meaning of the facts I have to adduce on this point, I will bring them before you in the order in which they arose. My object in commencing the experiments was to obtain new alcohols by substituting carburetted hydro- * [From The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magaz- ine and Journal 0/ Scietice, [3] vol. xxxvii., (1850), pp. 350-356.] \ Communicated by the Author ; having been read before the British Association at Edinburgh August 3, 1850.