An Historical Note on Beryllium E d y in 0111- ~ t , u d i w011 varions aspects of the Grignard reagent we thor~ghti t wottld be of interest, to compare orgnnoberylliwn compounds with some coontelp.l.ts of the versat,ile (:rignard reagent. At, t h a t stngo we considered that, a direct approach for the preperation of organoberyllinm compounds wodd he the interaction of berylliwn with an ItX campoond. There was t,hen no met,allic beryllium of qnality available in t,his country. One lo whom we wrote was Dr. Charles Parsons who while tcaehing in Now IIampshire had written s. book on "The Chemisiry and Literat,ure of Be~ylliom." He later became secretary of t,he American Chemical Society; a position he filled with eflectiveness, vigor, and distinct,ion for many years. I wt.ole him inquiring whether he had any of the metal, or where I might t,wn to purchase a small amount for. experimental purposes. Iio replied on November 29, 1921, and the following are oxtracts from that letter
"I regret to say that I have no metallic beryllium, nor have I ever seen any which I have felt I do not believe t.hst there is a gram of pure metallic beryllium in the world to-day, altho I am not prepared lo state definitely that there is not. I a m prepared t o state that I would not take a contmct to furnish you with a gram of pure metallic beryllium for %10,000,and I have no ides where i t e m be obtained. "I do not, wish you t o gct tho idea, far 8. moment,, t , h ~It mean t o indicate t,hat pure metallic beryllium cannot be made, for such is the farthest from my thoughts. I simply worked two years trying t o get i t myself before I left New Ilampshire and finally came t,o t,he conclusion that my own Lime was too valuable to work on t,he subject further. The difficulties are unquestionably great,. "Before metdlie beryllium, however, is going to be made pure in m y reasonable qoantit,y somebody has got t o find s non-aqueous electrolyte which will dissolve beryllium oxide in tho same way t h a t cryolite dissolves aluminum oxidc. So far as I know, such a solvent has not yet been fonnd, but, of course, someone may run on i t tomorrow." was pure.
I then made inquiries abroad and did obtain about 0.1 g from Professor A. St,ock, which he shared with mo from the very small piece he had made by his procedure. Also a small amount was sent me from tho N s t i a n d Physical Laboratory a t Teddington. Not long afber I wrote Dr. Parsons, I was informed by Professor B. S. Hopkins, who d s o worked aet,ively in this area, that he was beginning to think that 111.. Parsons' price was really very cheap. I t was only scversl years thereafter that beryllium became relatively available. Today the Amorican Chemical Societ.y is involved in financial problems which t,hey are handling cffcct.ively. I t is of interest to rcflect what might have happened if 1)r. Parson* had an agreement t,o provide a reasonable amount, of herylli~min s. reasonable time and had set t,he net proceeds aside sr; a principal fund or endowment for the ACS. IIowever, I h . Parsons was aware of t,he vagaries of research when he stated in the last sentence of his let,ter that "some one may run on it t~omorrow." HCNKKGILMAN Iowa STa.rc UNIVI:RSITY AMISS,50010
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Journal of Chemical Education
