THE investigation of the electrical conductivity of acids in hydroxylic solvents has yielded important results, and their value is very largely due to the fact that the ionisation of the solvent itself gives rise to hydrogen ions. An investigation of the conductivity of bases thus becomes doubly interesting : on the one hand, they provide another class of strong electrolyte, and on the other hand, they give rise to the ion of the solvent other than the hydrogen ion. The hydroxyl ion has been studied by Raikes, Yorke, and Ewart (J., 1926,630) and by Jeffery and Vogel (Phil. Mag., 1933,15,395), but the methoxide and the ethoxide ion have not been so fully investigated.Bases react with any acid impurity in the solvent, giving products the conductivities of which can be measured independently. The data for bases have to be corrected for this reaction, and in the process, considerable information is obtained as to the types and amounts of impurities present in conductivity solvents.Wynne-Jones ( J . Physical Chem., 1927, 31, 1647) measured the conductivity of sodium methoxide in methyl alcohol, and obtained 98.3 for the value at infinite dilution. Robertson and Acree (ibid., 1915, 19, 381) measured the conductivities of lithium, sodium, and potassium ethoxides in ethyl alcohol, obtaining values for the conductivity at infinite dilution of 31.1, 33.2, and 37.2 respectively. They do not state how the values were corrected for the conductivity of the solvent. Barak (2. Physikal . Chem., 1933, 165, 272) measured the conductivity of sodium ethoxide, but applied no correction to his results. The present work is an investigation of the bases of lithium, sodium, and potassium in
