Editing Heptane (section)

== History ==
Normal heptane was discovered in 1862 by [[Carl Schorlemmer]], who, while analyzing pyrolysis products of the [[cannel coal]] mined in [[Wigan]], identified, separated by [[fractional distillation]] and studied a series of liquid hydrocarbons inert to [[Nitric acid|nitric]] and [[Sulfuric acid|sulfuric]] acids. One of them, which he called '''hydride of''' '''heptyl (oenanthyl)''', had an [[empirical formula]] of C<sub>7</sub>H<sub>16</sub>, density of 0.709 at 18&nbsp;°C and boiled between 98 and 99&nbsp;°C.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schorlemmer |first=C. |date=1862 |title=On the hydrides of the alcohol-radicles existing in the products of the destructive distillation of cannel coal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51fYFmBb7_kC&pg=PA419 |journal=Journal of the Chemical Society |language=en |volume=15 |pages=419–427 |doi=10.1039/JS8621500419 |issn=0368-1769}}</ref> In the next year he identified the same compound in the [[Pennsylvania oil rush|Pennsylvanian oil]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTw9AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA81 |title=Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester |date=1864 |language=en}}</ref> By 1872 he switched his nomenclature to the modern one.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schorlemmer |first=Carl |date=1872 |title=On the normal paraffins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sow5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA120 |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=162 |pages=111–123 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1872.0007|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]] and shortly thereafter Californians discovered that some pines gave [[turpentine]] with unusual properties. It took until 1879 to identify heptane as the cause of that (see below for details), and only by the end of the century was this fact accepted by European [[chemist]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hill |first=Cary Le Roy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hAsRvdX33p8C&pg=PP13 |title=Experiments in the Production of Heptane by the Tapping of Jeffrey Pine in California |date=1932 |publisher=California Forest Experiment Station |language=en}}</ref>