Acknowledgements	6
	Contents	8
	About the Author	10
	Abstract	11
	1 Introduction	12
	1.1 Saturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons	16
	1.2 Unsaturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons	20
	1.3 Polymerization of Unsaturated Gaseous Hydrocarbons	23
	1.4 Scope of the Current Volume	26
	References	27
	2 Acetylene	31
	2.1 Edmund Davy and Bicarburet of Hydrogen	31
	2.2 Marcelin Berthelot and Acetylene	34
	2.3 Thomas Willson and Acetylene from Calcium Carbide	40
	References	45
	3 Cuprene	47
	3.1 Berthelot and the Initial Polymerization of Acetylene	47
	3.2 Paul and Arnould Thenard and the Effect of Electric Discharge on Acetylene	49
	3.3 Additional Discharge Studies of Acetylene	52
	3.4 Erdmann and Polymerization Over Copper	55
	3.5 Sabatier and Cuprene	56
	3.6 Alexander and More Studies of Acetylene Over Copper	58
	3.7 Gooch and Further Studies Over Copper Oxide	59
	3.8 Lozani? and a Return to Electric Discharge	61
	3.9 Daniel Berthelot and UV Polymerization	63
	3.10 Kaufmann and Discharge Versus Thermal Polymerization	64
	3.11 Mund and Polymerization via Alpha Particles	66
	3.12 Lind and the Polymerization of Acetylene Under Various Conditions	68
	3.13 What Exactly Is Cuprene?	70
	References	72
	4 Polyenes and Polyvinylenes	76
	4.1 Polyenes	76
	4.1.1 Richard Kuhn and the Study of Conjugated Double Bonds	77
	4.1.2 Blout and the Spectroscopy of Polyenes	81
	4.1.3 Bohlmann and Higher Dimethylpolyenes	82
	4.1.4 Unfunctionalized Polyenes	84
	4.2 Polyvinylenes	87
	4.2.1 Polyvinylenes from Poly(vinyl chloride)	87
	4.2.2 Polyvinylenes from Poly(vinyl alcohol)	89
	References	90
	5 Polyacetylene	93
	5.1 Natta and the Polymerization of Acetylenes	93
	5.2 Additional Studies of Acetylene Polymerizations	98
	5.3 Masahiro Hatano	100
	5.4 Sakuji Ikeda	104
	5.5 Hideki Shirakawa and Polyacetylene Films	107
	References	114
	6 Doped Polyacetylene	117
	6.1 Berets and Smith	117
	6.2 MacDiarmid, Heeger, and (SN)X	120
	6.3 Development of Doped Polyacetylene Films	123
	6.4 Continued Study of Doped Polyacetylene Films	125
	6.5 Naarmann and Efforts to Maximize Conductivity	126
	References	128
	7 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry	133
	7.1 Details of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry	134
	7.2 What Is Discovery?	135
	7.3 Legacy	138
	References	138
	Index	141