Early studies of quasi-1-D conductors were motivated by a proposal, in 1964, that certain types of polymer chain compounds could exhibit superconductivity with a high critical temperature T c. The theory was based on the idea that pairing of electrons in the BCS theory of superconductivity could be mediated by interactions of conducting electrons in one chain with nonconducting electrons in some side chains. (By contrast, electron pairing is mediated by phonons, or vibrating ions, in the BCS theory of conventional superconductors.) Since light electrons, instead of heavy ions, would lead to the formation of Cooper pairs, their characteristic frequency and, hence, energy scale and T c would be enhanced. Organic materials, such as TTF-TCNQ were measured and studied theoretically in the 1970s. These materials were found to undergo a metal-insulator, rather than superconducting, transition. It was eventually established that such experiments represented the first observations of the Peierls transition.