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DENATURED ALCOHOL: THE FUEL AND
LUMINANT OF THE FUTURE
ITH           the passage of the "Free
         Alcohol Law" in June, 19o6,
         relieving that agent from the
         heavy tax which had rendered
its use prohibitive in   many   desirable
directions, a highly important industrial
factor became active in our affairs. The
act did not take practical, full effect until
September, 1907, so that we have just
completed one year of the free use of alco-
hol in the arts and industries, and it can
not be said to have had anything like a
fair test of comparative utility. However,
in European countries, which have en-
joyed the unrestricted use of industrial
alcohol for many years, its value had been
established in the widest directions and it
is safe to assume that we shall derive at
least equal benefits from its employment
when we have learned to make the best
applications of it.
  "Denatured alcohol" is no more or less
than the ordinary commercial ethyl alcohol
denatured in such a manner as to render
it unfit for human consumption. The law
applying to it is clear and precise. It pro-
hibits the use of free alcohol in any bev-
erage or liquid medicinal preparation; in
all other respects its use is unrestricted.
The number and variety of industrial proc-
esses in which alcohol plays an important
part are almost countless. Professor Dun-
can has stated: "More than ten thousand
factories, representing thirty distinct in-
dustries, with an aggregate capital exceed-
ing five hundred million dollars and em-
ploying three hundred thousand workmen,
have been using either taxed alcohol or an
inferior substitute; with the removal of the
tax these figures will be enormously ex-
tended."
  In many manufactures we have been
unable to compete with the foreign made
goods in which free alcohol is a con-
trolling factor. A striking illustration is
afforded by transparent soaps, of which
we import fifteen million cakes a year
from  one British   manufacturer alone.
Again, we buy from France large quanti-
94
ties of "Chardonnet silk," an artificial
product of cotton and alcohol, which is
finding constantly increasing favor with
our people. These and other commodities.
that we have hitherto been obliged to im-
port, we may now make at home and
doubtless will.
   The possibilities of the use of alcohol
are practically unlimited. It must result
in the great expansion of many of our
existent industries and in the establish-
ment of many new, or hitherto unde-
veloped industries. It will also create a
large demand for many vegetable products
which are at present either wasted or sold
at little profit. More than one scientist of
repute has advanced the claim that the
chief future source of alcohol will be
cellulose. If this prediction is realized,
the commodity will be manufactured from
refuse straw, sawdust, rags, etc., and its
cost to the consumer, which is now about
fifty to sixty cents per gallon, should be
reduced to twenty cents, or less.
  Our farming population, more than any
other class, will be benefited by the exten-
sion of the use of alcohol in this country.
It is essentially a vegetable product and
it is derived from any plant that contains
fermentable matter. Our farmers may, as
those of Germany do, cultivate special
kinds of potatoes for the purpose, and
they will find that a great deal of the by-
product and refuse of the farm will serve
as a source of alcohol.
  Furthermore, the convenience and econ-
omy of labor to be secured by the use of
alcohol will probably affect the people of
the rural districts more than any others.
In Europe alcohol is generally used for
light, heating, cooking, cleaning and other
domestic purposes and also as motive
power in internal combustion engines. The
farmer there uses alcohol to drive his
pumps, plows, reapers, wagons, engines
and other machinery. Apparatus, ma-
chinery and utilities of various kinds have
been devised for these purposes, large
quantities of which have already been im-