22 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



advance from the purely chemical point of view, for the energy- 

 quantities involved in such submolecular processes must play a 

 fundamental part in the " ordinary " chemical changes which 

 these substances are known to undergo. '' 



ORGANIC CHEMIST It 



College, London. 



By P. Haas, D.Sc, Ph.D., University 



The generally accepted idea with regard to the action of 

 oxidising agents on acetylene is that they break this compound 

 down completely to carbon dioxide or else oxalic acid. In 

 two recent papers, however, it has been shown that, by care- 

 fully regulating the interaction, other products can be isolated. 

 Thus it has been shown by Wohl and Braiinig {Chem. Zeit., 

 1920, 44, 157) that ozone, suitably diluted with air, acts on 

 acetylene in the presence of moisture to produce a mixture of 

 glyoxal and formic acid. By spraying water on to the re- 

 acting gases, a 2 per cent, solution of glyoxal may be obtained, 

 but the concentration may be increased by spraying with the 

 glyoxal solution instead of water. The authors suggest a pos- 

 sible technical application of this reaction for the preparation 

 of indigo by converting the glyoxal into its bisulphite com- 

 pound and causing this to react with aniline. The second 

 paper referred to is one by Orton and McKie (/. Chem. Soc, 

 1920, 117, 283) on the action of nitric acid on acetylene ; by 

 varying the conditions of concentration and temperature and 

 using metallic salts as catalysts, these authors have been able 

 to obtain nitroform and tetranitromethane, the latter in suffi- 

 cient yield to make the method a possible source of a high 

 explosive from inexpensive materials. 



In the course of a systematic study of the constitution of the 

 Disaccharides, Haworth (/. Chem. Soc, 1920, 117, 199) brings 

 forward evidence which supports his constitutional formula I — 



CHaOH 

 CH-0-C\o 



O 



17 



CHOH CH 



CHOH CHOH 



CH.OH 



I 

 — CH— O— C 



CHOH CHOH 



O I I O 



CHOH CHOH 



— CH CHOH 



I I 

 CHOH CH2OH 



I 

 CH.OH 



I. 



-CH 



CH- 



CHOH CH3OH 



I 

 CH.OH 



n. 



