December 21, 1893] 



NATURE 



185 



This mode of preparation of ethyl ether and its homologues 

 from alcohols by means of sulphonic acids may therefore be very 

 advantageously substituted for the ordinary process now in use. 

 It may be carried on in a perfectly continuous manner, employ- 

 ing the same quantity of the sulphonic acid for weeks, in open 

 vessels and upon any scale. There would appear to be practi- 

 cally no limit to the amount of alcohol which any definite 

 amount of sulphonic acid is capable of converting into ether. 

 Prof. Krafft has actually followed the process with benzene sul- 

 phonic acid until one hundred times its weight of alcohol had 

 been so converted, and the residual sulphonic acid appeared as 

 capable of bringing about the reaction, and as free from products 

 of decomposition, as at first. 



The reaction in the case of benzene sulphonic acid can readily 

 be proved to occur in the two stages indicated in the following 

 equations : — 



CfiHs. SO2. OH -f C2H5. OH = CeHg. SO.. OC.Hg -f H^O ; 

 CeH3.S02.0C2Hg-hC2Hs.0H = CBHg.SO2.bH-fC2H5.0.CoH5 



For if the process is arrested at any time and the liquid in 

 the distilling vessel is poured, when cool, into water, the ethyl 

 ether of benzene sulphonic acid, C^Hg.SOo.OC^Hg, immediately 

 separates in the form of a difficultly soluble heavy oil, which 

 after separation is found to boil at 156° under 15 m.m. pressure, 

 which temperature has previously been given by other observers 

 as the boiling-point of the compound. 



The benzene sulphonic acid may be replaced by benzene di- 

 sulphonic acid, para-toluene sulphonic acid, ;3-naphthalene 

 sulphonic acid, or any stable sulphonic acid or its esters. 



As a laboratory or lecture experiment this new process of 

 etherification may be easily carried out in the following 

 manner :— The sulphonic acid, about 80-120 grams in quantity, 

 is conveniently placed in a strong glass tube, 25-30 centimetres 

 high and 5 centimetres wide, closed at one end. The open end 

 is stoppered with a well-fitting ordinary cork bored with three 

 holes, through one of which a thermometer is inserted, through 

 another the tube leading to the condenser, and through the 

 third the stem of a dropping funnel. The benzene sulphonic 

 acid is first melted and then heated to about 135-145° with the 

 thermometer in the liquid. Alcohol is then allowed to emerge 

 into the hot liquid from the dropping funnel, whose stem is 

 made to end in a fine opening only about an inch from the 

 bottom of the reaction cylinder. The supply of alcohol is main- 

 tained constant at a convenient rate from a reservoir whose 

 delivery tube passes air-tight through a cork in the neck of the 

 dropping funnel. The two layers of ether and water then 

 rapidly collect in the cooled receiver into which the tube of the 

 condenser passes. 



The process lends itself equally well to the preparation of 

 mixed ethers. For instance, if a mixture of methyl and propyl 

 alcohol are allowed to pass through a layer of a sulphonic acid, 

 ^-naphthalene sulphonic acid was used in the actual experiment 

 made, at a temperature of 122-126°, the product consists largely 

 of methyl propyl ether. This mixed ether, which has previously 

 been found so difficult to obtain, and which is important as 

 being isomeric with ethyl ether, can readily be obtained pure 

 by fractional distillation of the product, when it is found to 

 boil c instantly at 37°. Similarly, di-methyl and di-propyl ether 

 may be readily prepared from the corresponding alcohols. Iso- 

 butyl ether may also be obtained with ease from isobutyl alcohol 

 by use of a sulphonic acid, a reaction which it has hitherto not 

 been found possible to carry out by means of sulphuric acid. 



A. E. TUTTON. 



THE PROGRESS OF TECHNICAL 

 EDUCATION. 



CINCE the passing of the Technical Instruction Acts in 1889 

 *~^ and 1891, authorising County Councils to devote the funds 

 accruing under the local taxation (Customs and Excise Act, 

 1890) to educational purposes, considerable progress has been 

 made both as regards the number of authorities who have availed 

 themselves of the provisions of the Act, and also in respect to 

 the proper disposal of the funds. From the last report of the 

 National Association for the Promotion of Technical and 

 Secondary Education it appears that out of a total of 126 local 

 authorities m England and Wales, 114 are now giving the 

 whole, and twelve are giving part of the grant to educational 



purposes, and, estimating the total amount distributed at 

 ^■750,000, no less than ^604,000 is spent to this end. These 

 figures show that the work of technical instruction is firmly 

 established, and it only needs to be organised and consolidated to 

 become a very important factor in our educational system. 



It seems desirable, now that the scheme has had sufficient 

 time to crystallise into shape, to put on record some of the ex- 

 periences of Technical Instruction Committees, as set forth in 

 reports to various County Councils. By this means it is possible 

 to give an idea of the developments which are most likely to end 

 in good results. No attempt is made in the following to dis- 

 cuss all the reports, for such a course would be beyond the 

 limits of this paper. A few reports have been selected, and 

 from them extracts have been taken which are likely to be of 

 use for future procedure. 



For convenience we begin with the northern counties. The 

 Northumberland Committee reports that — " The average attend- 

 ance at the science classes was not quite as satisfactory as might 

 have been anticipated. It is notable, moreover, that the centres 

 where the attendance was smallest were not always situated in 

 sparsely populated districts. On the contrary, in more than one 

 fairly populated district, where educational work of a similar 

 character has been carried on for some years, and where a general 

 and ready appreciation of the advantages offered might reason- 

 ably be expected, the results were disappointing. In several 

 instances the teachers experienced difliculty on account of the 

 lack or diversity of the previous training of the students, and it 

 is to be hoped that the more general establishment of night 

 schools and continuation classes will, in the course of time, pre- 

 pare the ground for the work of the special technical 

 instructors." 



In thus expressing the need for more schools to prepare the 

 ground for technical instruction, the committee shows its good 

 sense. Elementary science is the best foundation of a technical 

 education, and to attempt to infuse a knowledge of technicalities 

 into the minds of the young mechanics of this country without 

 such a preliminary grounding, is to court failure. The action of 

 the Department of Science and Art, in withdrawing grants for 

 second-class certificates, was taken in order to force the 

 Technical Instruction Committees to provide the necessary 

 elementary instruction. Unfortunately, however, some com- 

 mittees have not yet realised their duty in this matter, so 

 between them and the Department many classes in elementary 

 science have fallen to the ground. 



One of the greatest needs experienced by Northumberland is 

 for a good secondary school. To quote the report : " The facili- 

 ties for secondary education in Northumberland are in certain 

 parts of the county entirely absent, and where they do exist 

 appear to be in many cases inadequate, inefficiently equipped, 

 and having no relation to the established agencies for elemen- 

 tary and higher education. In the south-west of the county 

 there is no secondary school of any description, and the lad 

 who gains a scholarship has no choice between Newcastle and 

 Carlisle. .... Of the schools of a secondary character already 

 in existence in the county, in only one or two cases is there 

 any attempt to provide systematic instruction in science, and in 

 ■ no case is there, outside Newcastle, laboratory accommodation 

 for practical work in chemistry or physics." 



This is a very regrettable state of things, and much progress 

 cannot be made until it is altered. A good secondary school 

 should be established at every large centre of population. 

 There are, however, numerous large districts not so favoured. 

 For example, the Technical Instruction Committee of the West 

 Riding of Yorkshire, which is without doubt doing as good 

 work as any committee in the country, reports that in the 

 Todmorden district, with a population of over forty thousand, 

 the nearest available secondary schools are at Halifax, more than 

 twelve miles away, and there are many districts in other coun- 

 ties far worse off. Clearly a portion of the sums now spent 

 in the railway fares of holders of scholarships would be better 

 expended in the establishment of secondary schools in the re- 

 quired districts, or by increasing the scholarships to the amount 

 necessary to cover the cost of maintenance of the scholar at a 

 residential college. The payment of the West Riding Com- 

 mittee for railway fares during the year covered by the last 

 report amounted to nearly ;(i'40OO, of which about ^^5000 was 

 expended under the scholarship scheme. This money would 

 be better spent in subsidising local technical schools, and the 

 committee intends in the future to follow such a course as far 

 as possible. 



NO. 1260, VOL. 49] 



