266 
DR. E. FRANKLAND’S RESEARCHES ON ORGANO-METALLIC BODIES. 
Calculated. 
Found. 
( 
C,H, . . 
. 29-00 
47-14 
47*33 
Zn . . . 
. 32*52 
52*86 
52*67 
61*52 
100-00 
100*00 
At ordinary temperatures zincethyl is a colourless, transparent, and mobile liquid, 
refracting light strongly and possessing a peculiar odour, rather pleasant than other- 
wise, and therefore differing greatly from that of zincrnethyl. Its specific gravity is 
1-182 at 18° C. Exposed to a cold of — 22°C., it exhibited no tendency to become 
solid. Zincethyl boils at 118°C., and distils unchanged. The specific gravity of its 
vapour is 4-259, according to the following determination by Gay-Lussac’s method: — 
Weight of zincethyl used '3103 grm. 
Observed volume of vapour 106-0 cub. cent. 
Temperature 148°C. 
Height of inner column of mercury 129-0 mm. 
Height of barometer 764-8 mm. 
Volume of residual gas* at 0°C. and 760 mm pressure . . . 2-78 cub. cent. 
Corrected volume of vapour at 0°C. and 760 mm pressure . 56*07 cub. cent. 
Specific gravity of vapour 4*259 
Zincethyl vapour, therefore, consists of one equivalent of zinc vapour and one volume 
of ethyl gas, the two being condensed to one volume : — 
1 volume of ethyl gas 2*0039 
1 equivalent of zinc vapour .... 2*2471 
1 volume of zincethyl vapour . . . 4*2510 
Found by experiment 4*259 
This vapour volume of zincethyl is highly remarkable, and almost compels us to 
conclude, that the vapour volume of the double atom of zinc is only equal to that of 
oxygen, instead of corresponding with the volume of hydrogen, in accordance with 
the generally received supposition. Zincethyl, therefore, appears to belong to the 
so-called water type, and to consist of two volumes of ethyl and one volume of zinc 
vapour, the three volumes being condensed to two : for if we were to assume that an 
equivalent of zinc occupies the same vapour volume as an equivalent of hydrogen, we 
* Tliis residual gas consisted of hydride of ethyl derived from the decomposition of a portion of the zincethyl 
by traces of moisture adhering to the tube or mercury, the total removal of which appears to be impossible. 
The space occupied by this hydride of ethyl would obviously be exactly double that occupied by the zincethyl, 
from which it was derived. The observed and corrected volume of zincethyl vapour (57*46 cub. cent.) was con- 
2*78 
sequently too great by =T39cub. cent., and hence the true volume of *3103 grm. of zincethyl vapour was. 
as above stated, 56*07 cub. cent. 
