Abstract
FARADAY discovered benzene, Perkin made synthetic dyes from aniline; it was found to be an easy step by nitration and reduction from benzene to aniline. Benzene became ennobled, the world preened itself in a coat of many colours, and birth was given to the great dyestuffs controversy which, perhaps, has now found an honourable senescence amongst the acts in the Expiring Laws Continuation Bill. Now a new child has been born, motor benzole, with a more aristocratic name. After one or two false starts in 1903 and 1907, it became an established fact as a fuel in 1913, and now National Benzole pumps are to be seen every few hundred yards on our highways. The proportion of the total production used—Prof. H. E. Armstrong terms it misused by—by the motorist increases each year, and considerably exceeds that required by the dye-maker, who, however, has to pay the higher price based on the fuel value of the spirit.
(1) Motor Benzole: its Production and Use.
By W. H. Hoffert G. Claxton. Pp. xxi + 689. (London: The National Benzole Association, 1931.) 25s.
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Motor Benzole: its Production and Use . Nature 129, 9 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129009c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129009c0