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Machell, G. (1952) Influence of position of hydroxyl group on the behaviour of esters of hydroxy-acids towards inorganic non-metallic halides. Doctoral thesis, Northern Polytechnic.
During the present century the discoveries of new types of compound, new structures, new reagents and new techniques, have been extended with bewildering speed, and the individual chemists who have been responsible for these discoveries have enjoyed the exhilaration of breaking new ground. This "pioneering" movement has in certain directions been so hectic, that newly discovered ground has been trampled on and labelled "established" long before a sufficiently detailed study has been accomplished. Therefore, for the worker who stays behind to undertake the less spectacular task of probing deeper, clarifying and consolidating, some credit is due. The purpose behind the experimentation, of which this work is a part, has been to study in more and more detail, the sequences of reactions which occur in systems which may be conveniently labelled Alcohol - Inorganic Non-metallic Halide Systems. It was realised that the project was a formidable one and its pursuance likely to be protracted. A considerable amount of preliminary work appeared to be entailed before a rational plan of procedure could be designed in sufficient detail.
There emerged out of the earlier experiments of Gerrard the conviction that these systems involved somewhat complicated sequences of reactions, which were sensitive to structure and experimental conditions. So much so, that it became clear that an entirely fresh and independent experimental survey of the whole field would have to be made, in order to correlate and preserve in an intelligible form the experimental results of the many previous workers, who were engaged in the study of replacement of hydroxyl by halogen.
In considering the experiments of previous investigators one must keep in mind the effects of (a) conditions, (b) a phenyl group attached to the alcoholic carbon atom, (c) the presence of pyridine, and (d) the nature of the halogenating reagent. These factors force themselves on one.as attention is given to first one experiment and then another; but because these factors were independently varied, often accidentally, with insufficient discrimination, no reliable generalisation emerged beyond the most crude summaries of the results of individual experiments. In illustration one example is discussed.
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