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
Robert Hurst (scientist) Ship Research Association. In the 1973 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hurst was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Hurst retired to Poole, Dorset, in 1976, where he did voluntary work with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He died in 1996 following his third heart attack. Robert Hurst (scientist) Robert Hurst, (3 January 1915 – 16 May 1996) was a New Zealand-born scientist. He was the first director of the experimental fast-breeder reactor complex at Dounreay, and later the director of the British Ship Research Association. During World War II he worked in bomb disposal and mine detection,