Several 1-butenyl and 1-pentenyl ether monomers were prepared by the ruthenium catalyzed multistage double bond isomerization of the corresponding 3-butenyl and 4-pentenyl ethers and characterized. Employing tris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium(II) dichloride as a catalyst, the isomerization of octyl 4-pentenyl ether to octyl 1-pentenyl ether in 60% yield could be achieved in 110 min at 200-205 degrees C. Under similar conditions, 3-butenyl octyl ether was isomerized to 1-butenyl octyl ether in greater than 99% yield. The reactivities of both types of monomers in photoinitiated cationic polymerization were determined using real-time infrared spectroscopy and the monomers were found to polymerize at very nearly the same rate in the presence of a diaryliodonium salt photoinitiator.