 In 2006 and again in 2007 the Zincke reaction was rediscovered by a research group from Japan  and a group from the USA.Both groups claimed the synthesis of a 12 membered diazaannulene (structure 1) from an N-aryl pyridinium chloride and an amine, an aniline in the case of the Japanese group (depicted below) and an aliphatic amine (anticipating surfactant properties) in the case of the American group.In a letter to Angewandte Chemie, the German chemist Manfred Christl  pointed out not only that the alleged new chemistry was in fact 100-year-old Zincke chemistry but also that the proposed structure for the reaction product was not the 12 membered ring but the 6 membered pyridinium salt (structure 2).