the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Ethylene
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or or Ethene, C 2 H 41 or H 2 C:CH 2, the first representative of the series of olefine hydrocarbons, is found in coal gas. It is usually prepared by heating a mixture of ethyl alcohol and sulphuric acid. G. S. Newth (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1901, 79, p. 915) obtains a purer product by dropping ethyl alcohol into syrupy phosphoric acid (sp. gr. 1.75) warmed to 200° C., subsequently raising the temperature to 220° C. It can also be obtained by the action of sodium on ethylidene chloride (B. Tollens, Ann., 1866, 137, p. 311); by the reduction of copper acetylide with zinc dust and ammonia; by heating ethyl bromide with an alcoholic solution of caustic potash; by passing a mixture of carbon bisulphide and sulphuretted hydrogen over red-hot copper; and by the electrolysis of a concentrated solution of potassium succinate, (CH2CO 2 K) 2 +2H 2 O = C2H4+2C02 +2KOH +H2.
It is a colourless gas of somewhat sweetish taste; it is slightly soluble in water, but more so in alcohol and ether. It can be liquefied at-1 I° C., under a pressure of 422 atmos. It solidifies at-181° C. and melts at-169° C. (K. Olszewski); it boils at -105° C. (L. P. Cailletet), or-102° to-103° C. (K. Olszewski). Its critical temperature is r3° C., and its specific gravity is o9784 (air= I). The specific gravity of liquid ethylene is o386 (3° C.). Ethylene burns with a bright luminous flame, and forms a very explosive mixture with oxygen. For the combustion of ethylene see Flame. On strong heating it decomposes, giving, among other products, carbon, methane and acetylene (M. Berthelot, Ann., 1866, 1 39, p. 2 77). Being an unsaturated hydrocarbon, it is capable of forming addition products, e.g. it combines with hydrogen in the presence of platinum black, to form ethane, C 2 H 6, with sulphur trioxide to form carbyl sulphate, C2H4(S03)2, with hydrobromic and hydriodic acids at 100° C. to form ethyl bromide, C 2 H 5 Br, and ethyl iodide, C 2 H 5 I, with sulphuric acid at 160-170° C. to form ethyl sulphuric acid, C 2 H 5 HSO 4, and with hypochlorous acid to form glycol chlorhydrin, ClCH2CH2.OH. Dilute potassium permanganate solution oxidizes it to ethylene glycol, HOCH 2 CH 2. OH, whilst fuming nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid. Several compounds of ethylene and metallic chlorides are known; e.g. ferric chloride in the presence of ether at 1So° C. gives C 2 H 4 FeC1 3.2H 2 O (J. Kachtler, Ber., 1869, 2, p. 510), while platinum bichloride in concentrated hydrochloric acid solution absorbs ethylene, forming the compound C2H4PtCl2 (K. Birnbaum, Ann., 1868, 1 45, p. 69).
Etienne, Charles Guillaume (1778-1845), French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born near Saint Dizier, Haute Marne, on the 5th of January 1778. He held various municipal offices under the Revolution and came in 1796 to Paris, where he produced his first opera, Le Reve, in 1799, in collaboration with Antoine Frederic Gresnick. Although Etienne continued to write for the Paris theatres for twenty years from that date, he is remembered chiefly as the author of one comedy, which excited considerable controversy. Les Deux Gendres was represented at the Theatre Francais on the 11th of August 1810, and procured for its author a seat in the Academy. A rumour was put in circulation that Etienne had drawn largely on a manuscript play in the imperial library, entitled Conaxa, cm les gendres dupes. His rivals were not slow to take up the charge of plagiarism, to which Etienne replied that the story was an old one (it existed in an old French fabliau) and had already been treated by Alexis Piron in Les Fils ingrats. He was, however, driven later to make admissions which at least showed a certain lack of candour. The bitterness of the attacks made on him was no doubt in part due to his position as editor-in-chief of the official Journal de l'Empire. His next play, L'Intrigante (1812), hardly maintained the high level of Les Deux Gendres; the patriotic opera L'Orifiamme and his lyric masterpiece Joconde date from 1814. Etienne had been secretary to Hugues Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano, and in this capacity had accompanied Napoleon throughout his campaigns in Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland. During these journeys he produced one of his best pieces, Brueys et Palaprat (1807). During the Restoration Etienne was an active member of the opposition. He was seven times returned as deputy for the department of Meuse, and was in full sympathy with the revolution of 1830, but the reforms actually carried out did not fulfil his expectations, and he gradually retired from public life. Among his other plays may be noted: Les Deux Meres, Le Pacha de Suresnes, and La Petite Ecole des peres, all produced in 1802, in collaboration with his friend Gaugiran de Nanteuil (1778-1830). With Alphonse Dieudonne Martainville (1779-1830) he wrote an Histoire du Theatre Franrais (4 vols., 1802) during the revolutionary period. Etienne was a bitter opponent of the romanticists, one of whom, Alfred de Vigny, was his successor and panegyrist in the Academy. He died on the 13th of March 1845.
His CEuvres (6 vols., 1846-1853) contain a notice of the author by L. Thiesse.
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Ethylene'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/e/ethylene.html. 1910.
