olefiantadj.

1797 Jrnl. Nat. Philos. Apr. 44 The contents of the letters of C. Van Mons, on this discovery made in Holland,..were as follows: The olefiant gas, which is so called from its characteristic property of forming oil in a circumstance which shall be described, is formed of a mixture..of concentrated sulphuric acid with..alcohol.

1807 T. Thomson Syst. Chem. (ed. 3) II. 413 This gas, which was first examined by the Dutch chemists, received from them the name of olefiant gas.

1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. iii. 110 Olefiant gas burns with a bright white light.

1844 G. Fownes Man. Elem. Chem. 152 Olefiant gas..is colourless, neutral and but slightly soluble in water.

1900 R. S. Ball et al. Ess. Astron. 464 I took the spark in a current of olefiant gas.

1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. ix. 99 The first of these compounds to be prepared in a pure state was olefiant gas, prepared by the action of sulphuric acid on alcohol.

1949 F. P. Adams Innocent Merriment 178 Oh, that thou Wert Carbon, and myself were Hydrogen; We would unite to form olefiant gas.

1968 A. A. Baker Unsaturation in Org. Chem. ii. 16 It was this abstract by Fourcroy that established the name of the new substance as ‘olefiant gas’.

1979 Isis 70 528 He regarded the ‘base of the acid’, C₃H₃O, as composed of an oxidized polymer of olefiant gas, CH (modern C₂H₄).