FixLAY.—AÀ Chemical Investigation of Pintsch Oil. 445 
The oil at present is unfit for commercial use because of its stench, its 
extreme volatility and inflammability, and especially its property of 
depositing a gummy layer on all vessels in which it is kept. If it were 
not for this last*objection the oil would make an excellent motor-spirit. 
carbons, ethylene, butadiene, and benzene being the chief constituents. 
The .Pi i in 
amounts of dissolved gases which are expelled on warming, the liquid 
the fractions, more especially the lower ones, are highly unsaturated. 
Above 112° C. the residue rapidly darkens, and decomposes spontaneously 
with evolution of pungent-smelling white fumes. 
Oxidation with permanganate of a fraction boiling between 60° and 
90° C. yielded formic and probably butyric acids, thus indicating the pre- 
sence of n-amylene in the original oil, in agreement with Armstrong and 
ns. 
it was thought that the “ gumming ” of the oil would probably be 
due to polymerization of the unsaturated hydrocarbons present, experi- 
the action. The action of sodium wire at 60° C., in a sealed tube, was tried 
freezing k 
but the low boiling- ction 
gave a considerable quantity of a soft rubber- mass, eri у in its 
solubilities from true rubber. It was probably a polymer which had not 
warming a 
solution, then into the absorption-flask (containing a layer of liquid Br,), 
then through another small quantity of Br, to catch any escaping 
and methyl iodide. 
