• DOI:10.1098/rstl.1828.0021
• Corpus ID: 98483646

XIX. On the mutual action of sulphuric acid and alcohol, and on the nature of the process by which ether is formed

@article{HennellXIXOT,
  title={XIX. On the mutual action of sulphuric acid and alcohol, and on the nature of the process by which ether is formed},
  author={Henry Hennell},
  journal={Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London},
  pages={365 - 371}
}

• Henry Hennell
• Chemistry
• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

1. I was some time since engaged in an investigation of the nature of oil of wine and of the salts called sulphovinates: the results I obtained were considered of sufficient importance to be honoured with a place in the Philosophical Transactions. The oil of wine and sulphovinic acid are substances produced during the mutual action of sulphuric acid and alcohol in the well-known process adopted for the preparation of ether; and an important point with me, during the above investigations and since that time, has been to develop the particular changes which take place when ether is formed from sulphuric acid and alcohol. I perceive by the Annales de Chimie for November last, that MM. Dumas and Boullay have been engaged on the same subject, and have experimented on and considered, not only the formation of ether, but also the nature of sulphovinates, and, as they supposed, though incorrectly, of oil of wine. That our results with regard to sulphovinates and oil of wine differ, may be seen from the published accounts; and there is not less difference between their conclusions with regard to etherification, and the results I have obtained, which I have now to describe. 2. When alcohol and sulphuric acid in equal weights are put together without the application of any heat beyond that generated during the mixture, the most abundant and important product is sulphovinic acid, above one half of the sulphuric acid being converted into that peculiar acid by union with hydro-carbon. But when such a mixture containing so large a proportion of sulphovinic acid is distilled, the most important product is a new substance, namely ether, and the sulphovinic acid disappears. The questions which then arose were, whether the ether was formed altogether from the direct action of the remaining alcohol and sulphuric acid in the mixture, or whether the sulphovinic acid might not also assist, or whether it might not be an essential state of the elements intermediate between the mixture of the acid and alcohol and the development of the perfectly formed ether. MM. Dumas and Boullay, who have considered the same questions, or at least some of them, —decide, that the portions of materials which form ether, are altogether independent of those which produce sulphovinic acid: but the following facts prove in my opinion the contrary of this conclusion.