The difficulty of preparing tertiary phosphines either by heating alcohols with phosphonium iodide or by acting on zinc ethers with terchloride of phosphorus, of which we have had much experience, induced us to seek for other and less troublesome methods for obtaining these bodies in considerable quantity.

The ease with which phosphorus combines with certain metals, and the readiness with which the resulting compounds react on haloid ethers of hydrocarbon radicals led us to think that, if only comparatively pure metallic phosphides could be obtained by a simple process, we should have no difficulty in preparing the tertiary phosphines and phosphonium compounds.