In a previous publication (1) from these laboratories, the displacement of sulfonic acid groups by the action of a nickel-aluminum alloy in aqueous alkali was reported. In the case of naphthalene sulfonic acids, simultaneous reduction to tetrahydronaphthalenes accompanied hydrogenolysis of the sulfonic acid groups. This paper describes the results of our studies on the application of the Raney alloy reduction procedure to a variety of mono-and di-substituted naphthalene compounds.The hydrogenation of naphthalene and naphthalene derivatives to the corresponding tetrahydro and decahydro compounds has been the subject of many investigations. The classical studies of Bamberger (2) on the reduction of naphthalene derivatives by means of sodium and alcohols established the marked difference in reactivity of the substituted and unsubstituted rings of the naphthols. While -naphthol reduces almost exclusively in the unsubstituted ring to give the phenolic, or-a-tetralol (I), /3-naphthol reduces to the alcohol, ac-ß-