The first to report on the relationship between kinetic and thermodynamic control were R.B. Woodward and Harold Baer in 1944. They were re-investigating a reaction between maleic anhydride and a fulvene first reported in 1929 by Otto Diels and Kurt Alder. They observed that while the endo isomer is formed more rapidly, longer reaction times, as well as relatively elevated temperatures, result in higher exo / endo ratios which had to be considered in the light of the remarkable stability of the exo-compound on the one hand and the very facile dissociation of the endo isomer on the other.