In the middle 1890s, three groups of chemists independently discovered a new cyclization reaction of certain appropriately constituted diazonium salts. Fischer and Schmidt reported that an aqueous solution of 2‐benzylbenzenediazonium chloride furnished fluorene on heating. Graebe and Ullman reported that 2‐benzoylbenzenediazonium chloride yielded fluorenone and Staedel reported a somewhat similar result from the action of nitrous acid on 2,2'‐diaminbenozpehnone, a reaction that produced a little 1‐hydroxyfluorenone. Two years later, Robert Pschorr applied the ring closure reaction to the diazonium salt derived from trans‐2‐amino‐alpha‐phenylcinnamic acid to obtain phenanthrene‐9‐carboxylic acid. The principal utility of these cyclizations reactions has been the synthesis of substituted ring structures in which the positions of the substituents are known.