Several years ago we disclosed'that calcium metal dissolved in a mixture of methylamine and ethylenediamine was capable of reducing simple aromatic hydrocarbons to cyclic alkenes. In this regard, it resembled the lithium-amine reducing system2 first reported in 1955. As early as 1916, Russian workers3 reported that calcium dissolved in liquid ammonia or calcium hexaammine [Ca (NH&] suspended in anhydrous diethyl ether would ...