Published in Henry Rzepa's Blog
Author Henry Rzepa
As I have noted elsewhere, Gilbert N. Lewis wrote a famous paper entitled “ the atom and the molecule ”, the centenary of which is coming up.[cite]10.1021/ja02261a002[/cite] In a short and rarely commented upon remark, he speculates about the shared electron pair structure of acetylene, R-X≡X-R (R=H, X=C). It could, he suggests, take up three forms. H-C:::C-H and two more which I show as he drew them.