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
Richard Edmonds (scientist) Richard Edmonds (scientist) Richard Edmonds (18 September 1801 – 12 March 1886) was a notable British scientific writer of the Victorian period. Edmonds, the eldest son of Richard Edmonds (town clerk and solicitor of Penzance), was born on 18 September 1801. He was educated in the grammar schools at Penzance and Helston. Articled as an attorney with his father in 1818, he qualified in 1823. He practised in Penzance until 1825 when he moved to Redruth, returning to Penzance in 1836. He had some poetical tastes, afterwards manifested in forty-four hymns contributed to a volume of ‘Hymns for Festivals of