II. Report of researches on silicon compounds and their derivatives. Part I

The present investigation was undertaken some years ago with a view to examine the action of the silicon haloids—but more especially of silicon tetrabromide—on various compounds containing nitrogen, as our knowledge of the relations of silicon and nitrogen is extremely limited. It was ascertained at an early stage of the inquiry that the bromide of silicon is much superior to the chloride as a reagent with nitrogenised compounds, but since the bromide had apparently not been obtained in any quantity even by its discoverer, Serullas, considerable time had to be devoted to working out a method for the production of a sufficiently large supply of this material.