[[Image:Williamson Alexander W.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Alexanderஅலெக்சாண்டர் Williamsonவில்லியம்சன்]]▼
==Research on ether==
▲[[Image:Williamson Alexander W.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Alexander Williamson]]
Williamson is credited for his research on the formation of [[ஈதர்#Williamson ether synthesis|unsymmetrical ethers]] by the interaction of an [[alkoxide]] with a [[ஆலோஅல்கேன்]], known as the Williamson ether synthesis. He regarded ether and alcohol as substances analogous to and built up on the same type as water, and he further introduced the water-type as a widely applicable basis for the classification of chemical compounds. The method of stating the rational constitution of bodies by comparison with water he believed capable of wide extension, and that one type, he thought, would suffice for all inorganic compounds, as well as for the best-known organic ones, the formula of water being taken in certain cases as doubled or tripled.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="Paul">{{cite journal | journal = Annals of Science | title = Alexander W. Williamson on the atomic theory: A study of nineteenth-century British atomism |last = Paul |first= E. Robert | year = 1978 | volume = 35 | pages = 17–31 | doi = 10.1080/00033797800200111 | issue = 1}}</ref><ref name="Aetherification">{{cite magazine |magazine=Philosophical Magazine | title = Theory of Aetherification | author = Williamson, Alexander | year = 1850 | volume = 37 | pages = 350–356 | url = http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/williamson.html | doi=10.1080/14786445008646627}}</ref>
So far back as 1850 he also suggested a view which, in a modified form, is of fundamental importance in the modern theory of [[அயனி]]ic dissociation, for, in a paper on the theory of the formation of ether, he urged that in an aggregate of [[மூலக்கூறு]]s of any compound there is an exchange constantly going on between the elements which are contained in it; for instance, in [[ஐதரோகுளோரிக் காடி]] each [[அணு]] of [[ஐதரசன்]] does not remain quietly in juxtaposition with the atom of [[குளோரின்]] with which it first united, but changes places with other atoms of hydrogen. A somewhat similar hypothesis was put forward by [[Rudolf Clausius]] about the same time.<ref name="EB1911"/>
