528 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters. 
THE CHEMISTRY OF BORON AND SOME NEW 
ORGANIC—BORON COMPOUNDS. 
Arden E. Johnson. 
While engaged in carrying on a detailed review of the chem¬ 
istry of several individual elements, among which was boron, 
I was greatly impressed by the meagre literature on the 
chemistry of this element. There are but very few com¬ 
pounds, artificially prepared, described; and those which 
dame nature furnishes us are exceedingly rare, with two or 
three exceptions, and appear to play very slight roles in the 
economy of the world, either mineral or biological. Very 
likely it is this apparent insignificance in nature and lack of 
any immediate important, industrial applications of boron and 
its compounds that has given rise to its neglect by chemists. It 
was to satisfy my curiosity as to whether this element offers a 
wide and virgin field of new, synthetic; products of curious 
properties, or presents unsurmount able difficulties which have 
really baffled chemists, that moved me to attempt some prelim¬ 
inary work during the summer of 1909 at the University of 
Wisconsin. 
If we study boron in the light of the periodic system we find 
that it occupies a, position between metals and non-metals, and 
also near carbon and silicon, which elements are also near the 
border-line. We indeed find a strong similarity between boron 
and these two elements, especially in physical properties, e. g. 
Amorphous boron is much like amorphous carbon, and has a 
chestnut-brown color. The corresponding graphitic and dia¬ 
mond boron are also known. However, in most of its com- 
