ABSTRACT
One of the first suggestions was advanced in 1 904 by Tschelinzeff [2], who believed that the intermediates in Grignard reagent formation were oxonium or quaternary ammonium salts. This assumption was quickly rejected by Grignard himself in 1 907 [ 1] . The exclusion of an ionic process for the mechanism of Grignard reagent formation was demonstrated by the work of Kondyrew [3] in 1 925 and Brun [4] in 1 939, who showed that very little current was passed when magnesium "dissolves" in an etheral solution of ethyl bromide.
