Acetylene of 180°. Acetylene was discovered in 1836 by Edmund Davy, who identified it as a "new carburet of hydrogen". It was rediscovered in 1860 by French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, who coined the name "acétylène". Berthelot's empirical formula for acetylene (CH), as well as the alternative name "quadricarbure d'hydrogène" ("hydrogen quadricarbide"), were incorrect because chemists at that time used the wrong atomic mass for carbon (6 instead of 12). Berthelot was able to prepare this gas by passing vapours of organic compounds (methanol, ethanol, etc.) through a red-hot tube and collecting the effluent. He also found that acetylene was formed by
Ranga Dias (scientist) Ranga Dias (scientist) Ranga Dias is a Sri Lankan born scientist, physicist, researcher currently working in the Lyman Laboratory of Physics at Harvard University. He was graduated from Department of Physics, Colombo University Sri Lanka and moved to Washington, USA for Ph.D. work at Washington State University in the field of extreme condensed matter physics. During his Ph.D. research at Washington State University he discovered a new class of highly conducting metallic and superconducting polymers; his CV lists 7 papers published since 2011 in the fields of solid state physics and extreme high pressure, while 16 are listed at ORCID.