This error was corrected in 1864 by Carl Schorlemmer, who showed that the product of all these reactions was in fact ethane.
V obdobju 1847-1849, z prizadevanjam za branjenje radikalne teorije organske kemije, sta Hermann Kolbe in Edward Frankland proizvedla etan z znižanjem propionitrile (etil cianida) in jodid etil s kovinskim kalijem, kot je to storil Faraday z elektrolizo vodnih acetatov.