Dedicated to Professor Jack D. Dunitz, a pioneer in science, on the occasion of his 80th birthday A recently described very simple procedure for estimating Hartree ± Fock (H. F.) energy and accurate nonrelativistic energy has been used with simple hydrocarbons possessing CC or CC bonds and for the acetylene dimer. Experimental characteristics (heats of formation, ionization potentials, electron affinities), structural features, and reactivity have been discussed in terms of quantum-chemistry characteristics at the H. F. level and also at a level including a part of electron correlation. Deviations from linearity with derivatives of long polyacetylenes and cumulenes are ascribed to the lowest-energy deformation vibrations, which decrease rapidly when passing from short to long acetylenic and cumulenic chains. The role of derivatives and heteroanalogues of hydrocarbons under study in atmospheric and interstellar chemistry is briefly mentioned. Derivatives with enhanced stability represent potentially promising construction materials for molecular devices and also resources for the preparation of defined clusters of C-atoms.Introduction. ± The purpose of this study is fourfold. First, it is connected with our recent work dealing with a simple extrapolation scheme for estimating H. F. and accurate nonrelativistic energies of atoms and molecules [1]. Second, infinite chains of various sorts of organic polymers attracted our attention as conductors and semiconductors already long time ago [2]. The systems studied in this paper represent, on the one hand, the first members of a series limiting at infinitely conjugated sp C-atom chains, and, on the other hand, especially the analogues thereof, represent rods for the potential connection of building elements of molecular machines [3]. Third, the species under study may serve as starting materials for preparing various sorts of C-atom clusters. Finally, some of the above-named hydrocarbons and derivatives thereof play a significant role in atmospheric and interstellar chemistry [4].To keep the size of this literature survey reasonable, we quote papers assuming, in our opinion, a key position in the area. These papers and references cited therein offer a rather complete picture of the situation. It is remarkable how much attention the realm of acetylenes, cumulenes, and derivatives thereof has attracted in recent years [5].It was Kloster-Jensen in the Heilbronner group who synthesized [6] in the seventies dihalodiacetylenes and halomethylacetylenes, in connection with photoelectron and vibrational spectroscopy, and, moreover, di-through pentaacetylene and recorded their electronic and photoelectron spectra. They also included a warning concerning explosiveness of triacetylene and quoted in this connection a work [7a] in which remarkable violence of detonations of triacetylene is mentioned. (Risk of violent detonation is mentioned in several papers by Gladysz, vide infra.)