In an 1859 publication Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig described the reaction of acetone with potassium metal. Fittig wrongly assumed a molecular formula of (C3H3O)n for acetone, the result of a long-standing atomic weight debate finally settled at the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860. He also wrongly believed acetone to be an alcohol which he hoped to prove by forming a metal alkoxide salt. The reaction product he obtained instead he called paraceton which he believed to be an acetone dimer. In his second publication in 1860 he reacted paraceton with sulfuric acid (the actual pinacol rearrangement).