678 



VI. Zincmethyl. 



The experiments detailed in the foregoing pages requiring the use 

 of considerable quantities of zincmethyl, the author's attention was 

 directed to the preparation of this body in much larger quantities 

 than could be obtained by the operations in sealed glass tubes pre- 

 viously described by him. He found that the preparation of a strong 

 ethereal solution of zincmethyl succeeded most satisfactorily in a 

 copper digester, heated to 100 C. ; in fact, the decomposition by 

 zinc of an ethereal solution of iodide of methyl is much more quickly 

 and perfectly effected than that of a similar solution of iodide of 

 ethyl ; but on submitting the product to rectification, a liquid was 

 obtained boiling at about 51 C., spontaneously inflammable to the 

 last degree, and possessing the intolerable odour of zincmethyl. 

 On analysis, however, it yielded numbers closely agreeing with the 

 formula 



CH 



The specific gravity of its vapour was 3-1215, a number which does 

 not correspond with the theoretical specific gravity of a compound of 

 the above formula, unless the exceedingly improbable assumption be 

 adopted, that it contains two volumes of zincmethyl vapour, united 

 with one volume of ether vapour, without condensation. On the 

 other hand, it accords closely with the specific gravity of the vapour 

 of a mixture of zincmethyl and ether in the above proportions. 



Without at present offering any decided opinion as to the nature 

 of this body, the author states that in repeated operations with large 

 quantities of materials he has entirely failed in obtaining pure zinc- 

 methyl by this method of proceeding. 



Similar repeated attempts to produce pure zincethyl from zinc 

 and iodide of methyl, without the intervention of ether, were also 

 unsuccessful, although this method generally succeeds in small glass 

 tubes. This anomaly in the results obtained from the same mate- 

 rials heated in a copper digester and in glass tubes, is doubtless due 

 to the difference of the conditions in the two cases. In a glass tube 

 half immersed in a heated oil bath, a constant distillation of the 

 internal liquid is going on, the liquid condensed in the upper por- 

 tion of the tube flowing over an extensive surface of zinc in its 



