WHEN a mixture of ethyl alcohol, benzene, and water is fractionated, a ternary mixture of all three distils over first at a temperature of 68°C.

Taylor has made use of this fact in the preparation of the ethyl esters of high boiling-point acids.

His method is a great improvement on the old methods, but it is not continuous, and is tedious when large quantities of ester have to be prepared.

To remedy these defects the apparatus described in this paper was devised.