The Slow Combustion of Methane and Ethane

Abstract

THE observations referred to by Prof. W. A. Bone in NATURE of Aug. 1 (p. 188) with regard to the source of alcohols in the combustion products of paraffin hydrocarbons were based on experimental evidence accumulated in Great Britain and other countries from the point of view of the peroxide mechanism of combustion; compare, for example, in the case of methane, the work of Wartenburg and Sieg,¹ who concluded that methane first forms the moloxide CH₄(O₂). It is interesting to note that the earlier supporters of the peroxide theory of oxidation had discovered the presence of alcohols in the oxidation products of hydrocarbons, but it was considered that these alcohols had been derived directly from the peroxides or from the esters² and not at all from a primary hydroxylation process.