The action of high speed cathode rays on acetylene

Abstract

The effect of a silent electric discharge on acetylene was investigated by de Wilde and by P. and A. Thenard in 1874. They found that a pale yellow solid was formed, together with an oily liquid in some cases. The solid on analysis was found to have the empirical formula of acetylene. The same product was obtained by Berthelot and Gandechon as a result of the exposure of acetylene to ultra-violet light, and by Mund and Koch, and by Lind and Bardwell by bombardment with alpha particles. Only very small amounts of hydrogen were formed in the reaction and the product was presumed to be a polymer of acetylene. Mund and Koch's, and Lind and Bardwell's experiments both gave a value of nearly 20 for the number of molecules leaving the gas phase per ion-pair formed, and the latter assumed that the reaction could be represented by the following mechanism:-