The existence of carbonyl sulfide, also known as carbon oxysulfide, was over-looked until 1867, when it was prepared by Than (156). Previous investigators had mistaken it for a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Carbonyl sulfide has a boiling point near that of propane and is found in a variety of industrial and natural gases. Increasing use of liquefied petroleum gas—mainly propane and butane fractions—as a household and automotive fuel makes timely a review of the literature of this sulfur compound. An article dealing in general with the sulfides of carbon was published twenty-five years ago (86), but no summary of the chemistry of carbonyl sulfide has appeared. The present review includes information cited in Chemical Abstracts through Volume 49 (1955).