Those are the words that are spoken, rather than "Eureka", when a discovery is made.
I think I've found a relatively easy way to produce Ether.
Easy as in: doesn't take rare materials, doesn't use up chemicals, doesn't take obscenely complex equipment. In short, could be do-able, with a little bit of work, PSHTF.
Ether, as in Diethyl Ether, as in one of the early general anaesthetics. As in - if you don't think that they're essential, I invite you to have an appendectomy, or any significant operation, without anything to dull the pain.
It still needs a solid catalyst, but that should be readily available in quantity at the moment. I have to look up a few details, but it's a promising process.
I've been wanting to find a way to do it and, lo-and-behold in my personal library, I had a textbook which covered exactly the reaction I wanted to know about, and gives a couple of options. The important thing is that the process uses a solid catalyst - something that doesn't get used up during the reaction, or get poisoned (and no longer able to be used), and is easily reused. One process I had seen depended on sulfuric acid - not something I would want to have to deal with PSHTF.
The question is - how easy is it to do? I rather think that if I can do it in any reasonable quantity - even if it's tiny amounts... Well, I know it would be more in need than any amount of gold.