W E s p e c ia lise i n co

p rodu c ts
mp le t e p la n ts
re q u i r i n g

Di st i l l a t i o n
R e c t i fic a t i on
Ev a p o r a t i o n
P u ri f i c a t i o n
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r ce st r a w a n d fro m a ll ce ll u l ost ic a n d e ge t a b l e
i , v

wa s t e m a t e r ia l s i n c l u di n g a n im p r o v e d t y p e of S u l
,

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co nn e c t io n w it h t h e p r od u c t i o n of p ow e r s p ir i t for
M o t o r Ca r s E n g n e s e t c
,
i , .

Wr i t e f or p a rt ic ul a rs

BLAIR CAM PBELL M cL EAN Ltd .

E N G I N E E RS , Co p p z n s m r n s , AN D F O U N D E RS

GOV A N Es t a b l i s h e d 1 83 8 G L A SG O W
L o nd o n O i c e : SA R DI N IA H o u s e K I NG SW A
, Y
CON V L L E, J ARV
L I M IT E D

M a n u fa c t u r e r s of a n d Sp e c ia l is t s in

Sp irit Co lo uri n gs a lt ex v ert

Ale Co lo uri n gs <0)

St o ut Ca r a mels

Co n v er sio n M a t e ria ls
(A l e s in t o St ou t )

Pri mi n gs

Oa t e x Fla v o uri n gs

(O
) Ca n dy

Il l
' -
T in et c .
, et c.

6 3 T HE BR OADWAY, STR AT FOR D,

L O N DO N , E 45
Teleg f am
'
l :

M a l texv ert - Strat, Lond on
T h e Su r e t y fo r
Y o u r Bon d
T ra d r w h r q uir to gi B o d
ql
e s o e e ve n

to t h Commi io r of Cu tom
e ss ne s s s

an d E ci for t h prop r
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I d u tri a l Alcohol ho u l d a rr a g
n s s n e

for t h N a tio al Gua ra t

e to n n ee

a ct th ir Su r ty T h p ay m t
as e e . e en

of a m all an ua l pr mi m ab l
s n e u en es

t h T r a d r of goo d t a d i g to b
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i d p d n t of P ri v at S u r ti
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iti Writ for o u r w b ookl t

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n titl d Corpor at S u r t y hip

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ou f ci c y e e e e en

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l a d to b u i
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The N at ion al Gu aran t ee

Suret y ship Associa t ion L t d ,
.

H ea d Oice
6 7 G E OR G E ST R EE T ,
E DI N B UR G H

Fin s b u r y P a v e m en t H ou s e , E C 2. .
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AL KR R -
I I S DA L R an d . . . IT :
 C OM M ON C OM M D
OI T I ES

A N D I N DU S T R I E S

AL C OHOL
I N C OM M E R C E AN D I NDUST R Y

BY

C H A R L ES SI MM O N DS
B sc
. .
, F C S
. . .

L Y
A T R S UP E R I N T E N DI N G A N A L S T I N T H E G OV E RNM EN T
B
L A O RA T O R Y
L O N DO N,

}
6

d
o
u

L/ u

L ONDON
SI R IS AA C P I T M AN S ONS , L TD .

P AR K ER ST R EET , K I NGS WAY, W O" . .

B AT H ,
L O UR N
M E B E ,
R
T O O N T O , N EW YO RK
 P R EFA C E
OWI N G to the death of the author whi lst thi s wor k was
passin g thr ough the press it has fall en to a coll eague to
,

complete the revision and to write these prefatory

remar ks .

The text is as t he auth or left it save onl y for those

,

few sl ight amendm ents and addi tions which current

events rendered ne cessary T he addendum c ompletes
.

the author s tables an d includes the latest published
returns .

M r S imm onds s excepti onal experience of the a p p l i

'
.

cati ons of alc oh ol t o c ommercial and scientic uses ,

and hi s wide and precise knowledge of the subj ect in

all its phases sh oul d warr a nt for t his little boo k r ecogn i
ti on as a useful and reliable introducti on t o a knowledge
o f the part played by alcoh ol in i ndustry and commerce .

T o th ose who are al ready cognizant of the great and

i ncreasing extent to whi ch a lcohol functions in the arts
and m a nufactures it sh ould al s o prove helpful as
, ,

affording a brief but inclus ive survey of the producti on

and applications of a commodi ty which presents so
many features of social scientic an d economic i nterest
, ,
.

Than k s are tendered on beh alf of the author to Messrs .

Blai r C ampbell
,
M cL e an Hal l , Co an d M acmill an
.
,

C o for the loan of block s of the vari ous i llustrati ons

. .

J . F . H .
 C O N T EN T S

C H A P TE R I
P AG E
I NTR ODU CT I O N 1
P rogre ss a n d devel opment o f physi cal sc ien ce l argely
dependent u po n al cohol I ndis pen sable t o the man u
fac t u re o f expl osivesDevel opments in modern
medi cine su rgery and hygiene fro m the resear ches
,

o f P as te u r and o thers u p o n al c oh oli c fermenta ti o n

Simple experiments t o ill ustrate the properti es o f

al cohol and t o expl ai n dis t i ll a t i oh s pe cifi c
and o ther te chni cal t ermsC hemi cal
,

gra vity "

sign i can ce of term al cohol C hemi cal co mposi

,

ti on of ordin ary or ethyl al cohol

"
methyl
,

and p ro p y al cohols

C H A P T ER I I

T HE M AN UFA CT URE OF A L COHOL FROM sr AR CH AN D

S UGAR M ATER I AL S 10
M a teri al s u s ed Sta r ch co nten t of v ari o u s ma teria ls
-

M ashi ng S a cc h a ri ca t i on o f the m ash T heo ry

-

o f the proce ss o f m as h ing F ermentat i o n The ory o f

the ferment ati on proce ssSu ga r w o rts Amyl o
fermentat i o nD i sti ll ati o n Co ffey s
'
s till Fu sel
oil R e ct i c a t i on Yield of al co hol fro m variou s
materi al s

C H A P TE R I I I

AL C OH OL FROM CEL L UL OSE S UB ST AN CES : SYN

THETIC AL C OH OL 29
0 6 111410 5 ; ma te r i a l s Woo d wast e Sul phi te pul p
li q u or Ri ce strawS yn t heti c al cohol From cal ciu m
-

car bide Fromco ke oven ga s

vi ii C O NTE N TS
C HAP TE R I V
PA6 8

VAR I ET I ES A N D P ROP ERT IES O F AL COHOL

Absol u te al co h olP lain spiri t or pl ai n Bri ti s h
spiritR e ct i e d spi ri t Spiri tu s Vini R e ct ifi ca t u s o r
,

Dil u ted al coh o ls o f the P harmaco poeia

,

Spirit o f wineP roo f spirit I mma tu re spi rit

Fact o rs for co nverting al co hols o f vari ou s strengths
into proo f gall o n s En u merated spi rits Co m
po u nded s pi ri t sS pirits u sed a s beverages : Bran dy
G i n R u m Whi s ky
,

, ,

C H A P TE R V

I N DUSTR I AL AL COHO L 49
N e e ssi t y f den at ri g ind stri l d ty free spirits
c or u n u a u

D enat rants C n dit i ns t hey sh ld f l l

-

u o o M t h y ou u e
l ated sp i ri t 4 p e ci a l l y den at u red al co hol Al co hol
n o t den a tu red Uses o f ind u s tri al al coh o l Qu an ti ti es
u sed for v ari o u s p u rpo ses i n : T h e United Ki n g
dom ; F ra n ce ; G erma nyAppli ca ti o n o f al co ho l
in the ma n u fac tu re o f Fini sh Varni sh po lish
l acq u er St ai n s pai nts en amelsFelt ha ts
, ,

Ce ll u l oid xylo nite e t c P owder

, ,

s fulmi n ate s and

o ther e x pl osive s Soap ma kingI n cande scent man
.
, . ,

tlesEtherC hl oro fo rm Ethyl chl o ride and e t hyl

bro mide Solid me di c in al ext ractsAl kal oid s and
ne c hemi cal s Embr ocat i o ns a n d l ini men t sS u rgi cal
dressingsH ai r washesAni li ne dyesP h ot ographi c
platesS teel pen s A rt icia l ow e rsAr t ici a l sil k
S hip s co mpassesD yei ng and Cleani ng

C H A P TE R VI
P OW ER A L C OH OL 67
I n creasing demand for motor spirit a n d grad ual -

depleti on o f sou rces o f petrole u m dire c t attenti o n t o

the p ossibility of empl o ying al co h ol a s a motor fu el
Veget able sou rce s of al co ho l being co ns tantly re newed
a re inexh au s tible Al co h ol c o mp ared with petro l a s

t o e f ci e n cy M ixt u re s o f al co h o l a n d o ther li q u id
fu el sC o mparative res u lts fo r variou s f u el s o f di s
t an ce tra velled per litre of fu el u sed N ec e ssi ty tha t
, ,

the mixtu res O f al co hol wi th l i q u id hydrocarbon s

 C N TEN TS
O ix

sho u ld be h o mogene ou s mi xt u re sC nditio n s a ffe c t

P A GE
o

ing the sol u bility o f hydrocarbo n f u els in al co hol

M inerali zed methyl ated sp iri t a s a mo tor f u el :
Cal ori c val u e Rendered expens ive by large propor
ti o n of woo d n aphtha presentForm ul a for power
methyl at ed spiri t ha s n ow been au th ori zed P rod u c
ti o n fro m ho me grown materi al s of su f cient al co hol
t o di s pl ac e petro l very impro ba ble
-

O rga ni za ti o n a n d
develo pment o f o verse as reso u rce s o e r better
prospec ts o f su ffi cient su pply Re co mmend at i on s o f
a co m mi t tee on al co h ol m o t or f u el

C H A P TER VI I
AL C OHOL OM ETRY 77
Kn wledge of al c oho li c strength o f liq u id s o f e ssential
o
impo rtan ce Early meth od s o f al c hemi s ts in tes ti ng
s trengt h : R aymond L u lly ; Basil Valenti ne
G u npo wder proo f tes t Development o f pre ci se
method s Bo yle s B u bble P rin ciple o f h y dro
me t e rs 4 i ke s s hydro meter
'
c

'
C o ntrac ti o n in mixtu re s
o f al co h o l and waterC o n stru cti on of table s o f '

al coholi c strength G ilpin s t ables Re v i sed table s of

strengths P roc ed u re in determi ning stren gth of :

P l ain spirit ; WineD esc ri pti o n o f Si ke s s hydr o

meter a n d S i kes s systemSystems o f Fran ce

G erm any a n d the United Sta te s D etermi n ati o n o f

,

al coholi c strength by t he refract o meter

C H A P T ER V III
M ETH Y L A L C OH OL A N D H I G HER AL COH OL S 91
Woo d spirit or methyl al cohol pro d u c t of dry
di stillati o n of woo d P rocess o f distill atio n a n d
p u ri ca t i o n Appli catio n s : a s solvent ; a s de n a t u r
a n t o f ethyl al coh ol in man u fac t u re o f formalin
in preparatio n o f dyest u ffs ; in a v ou ri n gs a n d
perfu mes P hysi cal C haracters of methyl al co h ol
So u rc es o f su pply M ethyl al coho l poi so ningBoyle s '

adi aph o rou s spirit H igher al cohol s in f u sel oil

P r od u c ti o n d u ring fermenta ti o nC hemi cal fo rm u l ae ,

boiling points a n d spe ci c gravities of vari ou s al cohol s

Essenti al c harac teri sti cs of brandy ru m a n d
,

whi s ky partly derived fro m higher al coh ol sC om

, ,

me r ci al appli ca ti on of higher al cohol s derived from

f u sel oil s
X C ON TEN TS
C HAP TER IX
A E
P G

M ISCEL I A N EO US N OTES AN DSTAT I ST IC S 99

D et ecti o n o f eth yl al cohol : E thyl a cet ate t est ;
I od o fo rm tes t P u ricati on of al co holi c dis ti ll at es
D ete ction of methyl al cohol : M ethyl formate tes t ;
M ethyl sa li c yl a te te s t ; Fo rmi c a ci d test C al cu l a
tion s : P ercentage o f al co hol by vol u me int o
per cen tage by weight ; P roo f spirit percentage
by vol u me into percenta ge of al co hol by vol u me
P ercent age o f al coh ol in beverage s as sold in
t hi s cou ntry : Spirits whi sky gi n e t c ; Wi nes
, , , . ,

p or t s herry et c Beers Ori gin al gra vity

A l co ho l d is til led i n t h e United Kingd o m :
.
, ,

Q uantities Ann u al prod u cti on of al cohol and chief

ma terial s u sed in o ther cou ntriesAl cohol co n su med
in the United Kingd o m I nd u stri al al coh ol prod u ced
and Con sumed in the United Kin gd o m I mpo rts a n d
exp o rt s of al cohol Reven u e from spi ri tsExci se
d u ties C u sto ms d u ties
-

A DDEN DUM 11 1
I N DE X 1 13
 L I ST O F T A BL ES
PAG E
STA RC H C O N TE N T
-
OF VA RI O U S M ATE RI AL S 1l

YI E L D or A L C OH OL FR O M VA RI OU S M A TE RI A L S (A ) 26

YI E L D OF AL C O H O L FR O M VA R I O U S M ATE R I AL S ( a) 28

I N D USTR I A L M ET H Y L ATE D S P I RIT U SE D I N VA R I O U S

M A N U F A CT U R E S I N T H E U N ITE D K I N G DO M 19 13 14 ,
-
56
7

I N D U ST R I A L A L C O H O L T A X F R E E , , S D
U E IN MANU
F A CT UR E S I N F RA N CE 19 13 , 57

P A RT L Y D E N A T U R E D I N D U ST R IA L A L C O H O L
-
U SE D IN

M A N U F A CT U RES I N GE RM A N Y 19 12 ,
1 58

S P EC I F I C G RAV I TI E S '
OF A QU E O U S A L C O H O L AT

s
So /so F .
( 15 -
6

C .
) 835

S I K ES S
'
S YSTE M H Y D R O M ET E R
, I N D I CA TI O N S ,
AN D

P R O O F STR E N G T H S

P A RTI C U L A R S OF VA RI O U S A L C O H O L S 97

P E RCE NTA G E S OF A L C OH OL I N B EV E RA G E S A S S O L D
IN T H I S C O U N T R Y : S P I RI TS W I N E S B E E R S , , 10 2 4 -

AL C O H O L D I STI L L E D I N THE U N I TE D K I N GDOM ,

19 10 -
19 1 8 10 4

AN N U A L P R O D UCTI O N OF A L C OH O L , 190 9 19 13
-
0 10 5

AL C O H O L C O N S U M E D IN T HE U N I TE D KIN G DO M ,

19 10 19 19 10 5

PL AI N S P I RITS I M P O RT E D 10 6
 I L L UST R A T I O N S
L OU IS P A ST E U R ( 1822 189 5)
-

F IG .

1 . M A SH T UN FOR C E R EA L S W I TH RA K E STI R RI N G G EA R
-

PL AN T FO R C O L L E CT I N G C A R B O N D I O XI D E F R O M
-

FER M EN T AT I ON s : T H R E E STA G E C O M P RESSO R

-
l7

PL ANT FOR C O L L E CT I N G C A R B O N D I O X I D E FR O M
-

F E R M E N T A T I ON s : C O N D EN SE R P U RI F YI N G A N D
,

B O TT L I N G A P P A R A T U S 19

C O FF E Y S
P A TE N T C O N TI N U O U S -
WOR KI NG ST EA M
STI L L 23

n
s D O U B L E C O L U M N C O N TI N UO U S STI L L
-
25

n
s T RI P L E C OL U M N C O N TI N UO U S STI L L
-
27

N ST E A M J A C K E TE D C O P P E R GI N STI L L 45

o
s C OP P E R R UM STI L L 47

w I M M E RSI O N R E FR A CT O M ETE R 89
 A L CO H O L
IN C OM M ER CE AN D I N DUST R Y

C H AP T ER I
I N TRODUCT I ON
H UXL EY once rem ar ked that it was a curi ous speculation
t o thi n k what would have become of modern physical
scien ce if glass and alcohol had not been easily obtain able .

With glass we are not specially concerned here but the

.
,

rem ar k is cert ainly true as regards alcohol T o take

only one branch of physical scienc e n amely chemistry
.

it is assuredly the fact that lackin g alcohol the aston

, ,

ishin g progr ess which this branch of kn owledge has made

during the last few decades would have been quite
impossible .

And if this is t rue of physical science it is no less t rue

,

o f industry and therefore of commerce al so

, C hemistry
.

permeates all our industri es L ord M oul ton has re

.

corded that du rin g the great war when he was deput ed

,

to supervise the suppli es of expl osives the , omni

presence of chemistry was a revelation t o him I .

had never realized he says
,
I do n ot suppose many
people in England do realize how chemistry permeates
every industry that exists h ow omn ipresent it is in
,

every human e ffort how it s own prosperity brin gs

,

prosperity to every other form of hum an industry .

And agai n I had to Show to the Engli sh people how

chemistry wen t into every portion of its life and how ,
2 A L C OH OL

the bres of its rootlets were inextricably mixed with

every industri al enterprise .

N o doubt L ord Moulton was concerned more especially

with chemistry in relation t o expl osives ; but his
rem ar k s it wi ll be seen a re quite general an d they
, , ,

aptly desc rib e the bearin g of chemistry up on industry

.

at large T hey a re tru e of norm al times and apart

'

.
,

alt ogether from the special role of chemistry in modern

w a rfare B oth in peace and in wa r ch emical science
.
,

is in dispensable t o Our well being ; and its progress -

a n d development have been l a ely dependent upon

rg -

alcohol .

As regards w ar however we may rem ar k that it was

, ,
'
not merely in dire ctly by it s inuence on t he gener al
'

developmen t of che mical and physic al scien ce that

'

a lcohol was of impo rtance d u rin g the gr eat nation al

st ruggl e It is a matter of co mmon knowledge that

.

t he large distil leries o f the country were di vert e d from

.

their n orm al a ctiviti e s a n d utilized by the S tate for ,

producing alcohol to be e mp loyed direct ly in the man u

facture of explosives an d other chemic al s wi thout which ,

the war could not have been c ar ried on at all .

SO ma ch then for the irnp ort an ce of al coh ol in t h e

, ,

Ordi n ary art s O f peace and in the making of wa r B ut

'

..

there is yet another d om ai n and On e of t r an scen den t

,
u

interest to a l l in which t he p rodu ct ion of a lcohol h as been

,
~

al lied wi t h p rogr ess an d t w it h developments havin g

. .

in esti mable v alue for m a n k in

d n a mel y the rel ief ,

of hum an suffering I n this resp ect a lso very few

.
, ,

pe ople reali ze how grea t is t he debt whi ch the r a t e owes

to studies an d experimen t s ori gin atin g in question s
c onnected wi th alcohol We do n ot spea k here of

.
,

t he an aes thetics ether chl oroform ethyl chloride

an d so on p rodu ce d di rect ly fro m a l sohol ; G rea t a s
, , ,

'

f
.

have bee n t he b en e t s wh ich t he use of these has

'
 I NTRODUCTI ON
conferr ed suff ering hum an i ty th ey p al e al most in to
on
-
,

in si gn ican be when compared with the developments

in medic al practice in surgery and in m odern hygiene
, , ,

whi ch h ave followed directly or indir ectly from re , , ,

searches up on the n a t II re of alcoho l ic fermen tati on

This processferm en tati onwas at one t ime thought
.

to be a purely chemical one Yeast was regarded as a .

chemi cal reagent whi ch produced al cohol from sugar

,

by breakin g the latter subst ance down in to a Simpler

body much in the sam
,
e way as caust ic soda w i ll sp l it
o ff glycerin e from fat Further study Showed that
yeast was in fact a li vin g or ganism n ot a chemical
.

, , ,

reagent T he microscope revea led it as bein g made up

.

of very sm all Cells whi ch un der sui t a b l e con di t ion s

, ,
'

could grow and reproduce like cells to an i nden ite

,

e xt en t Alcoholi c ferment ation the decomposition of

.

s ugar into a lc ohol an d other products was inti mately

Connected with an d dependent upon the vital activity
, ,

of t h e cells But yet further resea rches showed that

.

there were oth er kin ds of cells which pro duced by ,

their vi t al activities quite o t her products than the .

wholesome beer or wi ne yielded by .ordinary yeast : .

P asteur in p a rticul ar after studyi ng n ormal alcoholic

, , ,

ferm entation p a ssed on to in vestigate t he abnormal

,

processes which gave rise to unsound beer or wine .

T hese researches in their turn led to in quiries into the

, ,

Cause of cert a in abnorm al conditions in anim al s

nam ely in to the origin of anthrax an d of " certai n
, ,

diseases to whi ch S ilkw orms are liable D enite proof .

was ob t ain ed that these ail men ts were due to the action
of mi cro scopic li vin g organismsb acteri aan d hence

forth the science of medicin e was revolution iz ed T he

clue t o the real n atur eof in fectious disease was obt ai ned .

The possibili ty of ren derin g subj ects immun e from

disease could now be visu aliz ed an d the prevent ion of
.

,
4 AL COHOL
epidemi cs foreseen These rese a rches in fact laid the
.
, ,

fou ndati on for the subsequent wonderful developments

which have t ak en place in the spheres of preven
ti ve medicin e an d hygiene and t hey had their
o rigin in the patient and laboriou s investi gations
und ert a k en by m any work ers with a View to elucidat ing
the n atu ral processes in volved in the production of
alcohol As D r Horace Brown has well rem a r k ed
. . ,

modern surgery like preventive medicine is a chi ld

, ,
"
of the ferment ation industries .

A dmitt ing then the importance of our subj ect

, ,

alcohol let us proceed to obt ai n a fairly denite idea of

what this import an t substance is like M ost people .

know that i t is the intoxicatin g prin ciple cont ained in

beer wine whis ky and other spirituo us liquids ; but
, , ,

m an y persons have only a very hazy indenite notion ,

as to what it is in appearance or what its properties , ,

other th an those of an intoxicant are Assumin g , . ,

therefore that the reader has little or no prelimin ary

,

kn owledge of the subj ect we will devote a few pages to

,

describin g some simple experiments which wi ll enable

him to form a clear ment al picture of this interestin g
commo dity and incident ally will e xplai n certain
, , ,
"
technic al terms such as disti llation specic gravity , ,

and so on .

Suppose we t ak e a quantity of ordin a ry beer or win e ,

and di stil it T o do thi s we boil it in a as k or other

.
,

vessel from whi ch the vapours given off by the boil ing
,

liquid can be led away through a tube and cooled thu s ,

condensing them into a liqu id again Alcohol li k e .

,

water is convert ed into vapou r when boiled so that the

, ,

vapours given off by the boili ng beer or wine Contain

a mixture of water vapour (steam ) and alcohol vapour
- -
.

H ence the condensed liquid or di st illate as it is , ,

"

termed wi ll c ontain the alcoh ol origi n all y present in

,
 I N TRODUCTI ON 5

the beer or wine mixed with more or less water but

, ,

separated fr om the sugars col ourings and other solid , ,

matters which rem ain behind in the distilli n g ask

, .

(Besides al c ohol and water the distill ate will include ,

traces of oily an d other volatile matters but for the ,

presen t purp ose these can be di sregarded ) .

I f the Operation is cont inued until about two thi rds -

of the beer or wine has been distill ed o ver practically ,

all the al coh ol wil l be obtain ed in the distill ate but

as it is still mixed wi t h a large prop o rtion of water ,

it is only a weak spirit N ote however that we have .

, ,

eliminated ab out one thi rd of the water T he alcohol

-
.

is now concentrated into two thirds of the origin al -

bulk .

On re dist illing the distillate in the same manner

-

part of the water is agai n eliminated R epeating this .

operati on as often as may be necessary we obt ai n ,

a product in which the proportion of alcohol becomes

gr eater and gr eater until eventu a ll y the distillate
,

c onsists m a in ly of alc oh ol with only a very little water ,

remainin g .

I n practice various de v ices are employed to sh orten

,

the process by reducing the n u mber o f re disti l lations -

requ ired S ome of these devices are described furt her

.

on I t will suf ce here to say that in modern stills

.

alc oh ol of very high strengt h (96 per cent or more)

is produced at a single distillati on T he last traces of .

water cann ot be eli min ated by distillation al one h owever ,

o ften repeated but they can be removed by Chemical

treatment (see later absolute alc ohol ), .

Suppose then that we have obt ai ned our n al

, ,

pr oduct either quite free from water or nearly so

,
.

I t wil l be a Clear c ol ourless liquid looking very much

, ,

li k e water On e might al most say h owever that the

.
, ,

resemblan ce ends here On cautiously t astin g the .

( 146 6 F)
2
6 A L C O HO L

liqu id it will be found unlike water t o have a very

, ,

pungen t avour and its odour th ough n ot very strong , ,

is a pleasant characteristically spirituous on e

, .

Al cohol i s a much lighter subst ance than water as ,

the foll o wing e xperiment wi ll Show S upp o se we have .

a bottle which wh en l led with p u re distilled water

,

at the temperature 156 C 60 holds exactly

.

10 0 grams of the water I f this bottle is lled with

.

p u re absolute alcoh ol (that is al c oh ol entirely freed

from water ) at the same t emperature it wi l l be found ,

that the weight of the alcohol is only 79 3 6 grams

(m ore exactly , The alcoh o l therefore weighs , ,

less than four ft h s as much as the same volume of

water .

I f we divide the weight o f the alc ohol by the weight

of the water we obtain 79 359 1 10 0
, 0 7 9359
-
T his -
.

is the sp ecz c gra v i ty of alc oh ol at 15 6 C that is -

.
,

the relative weight o f al coh ol at this temperature ,

c ompared with the weight of the s a me volume of water

at the same temperature S pecial bottles are obtainable
.

for such experiments spec ic gr avity b ottles or

pykn ometers arranged so that t he determin ation
may be made as accurately as possible .

When a light is applied to it alc oh o l readily ign ites , ,

burning with a pale blue a me practically n on luminous ,

-

but very hot .

I t mixes freely with water and develops heat in doing

,

so I f about an e qual volu me of water is stirred into

.

a quantity Of alc oh ol both being at the ordinary room

,

temperature the increased warmth of the mixture

,

can be felt even with the hand and a thermometer wi l l , ,

of course show it very plainly

, .

Another impo rtant property of alcohol is its power o f

dissolving many subst a nces which are qu ite insoluble in
water I f for instance we po wder some resin and shake
.
, ,
 I TRODUC I
N T O N 7

it up in a test tube wi th water n one will dissolve ;

-

but on repeating the e xperiment with alcohol the resin ,

can be c ompletely brought into Soluti on T his propert y .

is util ized to an enormous extent in the ma kin g of var

nishes and p olishes S imilarly alcohol will disso lve
.
,

c astor oil (though n ot other xed vegetable oils except ,

to a limit ed degree ) M ixed with ether it dissolves

.
,

gun cott on t o fo rm c ollodi on extensively used in ,

phot ography and in medicine I t is also a good solvent .

for a great many other organic c ompounds I ndee d .

,

it is l ar gely though n ot by any means entirely due t o

, ,

this solvent property that alc oh o l has proved of such

sign al service in the developmen t of chemistry with ,

all th at this development implies for the art s and

manufactu es r .

Fr om the foregoing outline the reader will it is hoped , ,

have gained some den ite preliminary ideas as t o what

alc oh ol is and what it d oes and we may now proceed
to a more detailed study of the subj ect .

Before d oing this however it may be well t o explain

, ,

that in chemistry the term

, ,
alc ohol has a wider
signicance than we have gi ven it in these introduct ory
rem ar k s I t is a generic term denotin g not merely one
.
,

particular article but a cl ass of substances which have

,

certa in chemical properties in c omm on T hese substances .

are therefore all called alcohols and there are ,

many members included in the gr oup T hey differ .

from one another in their chemical compositi on a n d also ,

in their physical properties such as Spec ic gravity , ,

boi ling point s olvent po wer and so on T he ordin a ry

, , .

alcohol of wine beer and Sp irits is only one member

, ,

o f the gr oup albeit the most imp ort an t one I t is

, .

kn own as ethyl alcohol Another member of the

.

alc oh ol class is dist i lled from wo od and termed wood ,

spirit or methyl alcohol this is a liquid resembling

8 A L C OHOL

ordin ary alc oh ol in many respects th ough in others ,

it is qu ite di fferent Other alc oh ols termed propyl .
, ,

butyl an d amyl alcohols are found in fusel oil
, , ,

whilst yet others occur in vari ous essential oils used in

p erfu rn ery or as a v ou rin gs I n general h o wever .
, ,

whenever the word alc ohol is used al one i t sign ies

the ordin ary or ethyl al cohol I f any of t h e others .

are mea nt the fact is always indicated by the use o f the

,

adj ectives meth yl propyl amyl etc unless the c ontext , , , .

,

Clearly shows thi s to be unnecessary .

Ethyl alcohol has the chemical fo rm ul a C2 H 6 0 .

Assuming that the reader has no kn owledge of chemistry ,

it may be explained that this formul a indicates (i n te r

a l i a ) tha t al cohol is c omp o sed of two atoms o f carbon

(C ) six of hydrogen (H ) and one of oxygen

,
T he ,

relative weights of these atoms are respectively 12 , , ,

1 and 16
,
H ence the c omposition of ethyl al c oh ol by
.

weight is
Carbo n 2 x 12 24 p a rts .

H ydr ogen 6 x l 6
O xygen 1 x 16 16

T o tal 46

I f for ex am ple we had 46 ounces of pure alcohol by

, , ,

weight this quantity would cont ai n in chemical c om

,

bination 24 oz of c ar bon 6 oz of hydrogen an d 16 oz

.
, .
,
.

of oxygen T he percen tage c omposition of eth yl alcoh ol

.

is readily c al cul ated fr om these gur es ; it is : carbon

52 1 hydrogen
-
,
and o xygen 34 8 per cent .

The formula C2H GO is generall y written in a slightly

e xt ended form as Cs OH indicating that as exi sting -
, ,

in alc ohol one of the hydr ogen at oms has di fferen t

,

properties from the other ve .

M ethyl alc ohol has the chemic al fo rm u la C H 4 O or ,

C Hs OH Here it will be seen there is only on e

-
.
, ,
 I N TRODUCTI ON 9

atom of carb on instead of two P r opyl alc oh ol is

, .

represented by CaH sO or C3 H 7 OH in which there are

,
.

three at oms of c arbon T he o ther f usel oil alcohols

.

c ontain still larger prop ort i ons of carbon and are with
, ,

propyl alc oh ol often referred t o as higher alc oh ols

, .

I t is beyond the scope of this li t tle work t o deal

much further with these various substances ; but as
they an d especially methyl al coh ol are in practice
, ,

often associated with ordinary alc ohol it is well at the

,

outset briey to indicate the relati onships existing

between them and ethyl alc oh ol Additi onal partic ul ars
.

will be found in C hapter V I II.

 C H AP T ER I I
THE M AN UFA CT URE O F AL CO H OL FRO M STAR C H AN D
S UG AR M ATER I A L S
P RA CT IC A Y all the alc oh o l of c omm erce is made by
L L

ferment ati on processes Other meth ods are available .

,

as will be n oted in due c ourse but they are n ot yet

su fciently developed t o be of gr eat import ance alth ough ,

this p osition may be altered as time goes on M ean .

while fermentati on methods hold the eld and as far ,

as can be seen are likely to do so for an ind enite period .

M aterial s Use d The subst ance fermented is always

.

suga r o f one kind o r an other

,
T he raw materi al which .

the disti l ler purchases h owever is n ot always or usu a l ly

, , , ,

sugar but if not it must r st be c onverted int o some

,

form of sugar before actual ferm entati on c an t ake place .

Chie y the distil ler s raw materi al c onsists of st a rch

bearing pr oducts such as barley maize millet o ats

, , , , ,

p ot at oes rice and rye Sugar pr oducts are also used

, , .

in considerable quantity especi a lly m olasses gluc o se , , ,

can e sugar juice beet sugar juice the sap of vari ous
, ,

palms the owers of the mahua tree wine and fruits

, , ,
.

I n fact al m ost any subst ance containing st ar ch or sugar

can be utilized for the pur pose if it is available in suffi ,

cient qu a ntity an d at low enough price But as starch .

an d sugar are foodstuffs the market value of p articular ,

material s may at a gi ven time and place be t oo high t o

, ,

all ow of their being used in the production of alcoh ol .

What is the best material in on e country will oft en be

t o o c o stly for u se in an other V ery much depends up on .

the c l imate the kind of soil the relative cheapness of

, ,

labour and the facilities for transp ort I n this country

, .
,

10
 T HE M AN UFACT URE OF AL C OHOL 11

for inst ance gr ain and molasses ar e chi ey used pot atoes
, ,

scarcely at all whereas in G erman y and R ussia potatoes

are employed for alc oh ol making on a very large sc ale .

The n ature of the soil and a supply of relatively cheap

,

lab our have made the potato the most econ omical
,

source of al c oh ol in th ose c ountries but in the United

Ki ngd om it h as too high a value as food the distil ler
c ann ot pay the price it comm ands for this purpose .

On the other hand our fac i lities for o verseas transport

,

en able us in norm al times to obtain m olasses m ai ze

, , , ,

and even rice at a cost l ow en ough to all ow of these

art icles be ing used in m akin g alcohol I n tropical or .

sub tropical countries ag a in the m ost suitable raw

-
, ,

materi als may be starch bearing pl an ts li ke cassava -

arr owroot and m a ize or sugar product s such as

, ,

can e juice an d p a lm sap .

The followin g table Sh ows the average amounts of

fermen table carb ohydrates mainly st ar ch present in , ,

the pri ncipal st arch be a rin g materi als used in the

-

di stilli ng industry N atur al ly there is some variation

.
,

accordin g to the qualities employed .

T AB L E I
S TARC H C O NTENT OF VARI OU S M ATERI A L S
-

S t a rch et c , .
,

M a t eri a l .
p er ce n t .

Barley 60
M aize 63
Oat s 53
Ri ce 67
Rye 63
Wh eat 65
G reen M alt 40
Dry M alt 68

M as hing .The r st operation in the process of con

vertin g starch subst an ces into alcohol is to obtain a
m ash of these material s T here are some diff erences .

o f treatment according t o the in gredient s employed

, .
12 A L C O HO L

With cereals like malt barley o ats and rye such as

, , , ,

are used in this cou ntry for ma king grain spirits ,

the substances including al ways malt in proportion

,

ran ging from 10 to 25 per cen t are r st crushed , ,

and the resulting grist is extracted two or three
'

times wi th hot water (technically te rmed

T he last quantity of liquor cont ain in g only a

,

relatively smal l quantity of matters extracted fr om

the grains (or goods is used for the r st extracti on
in a subsequent mashing .

M ost of the industri al alcoh o l produced from starch

bearin g materials is however obtained from p otatoes
, ,

a n d maize .T his procedure therefore wi ll be taken as the

, ,

main theme of the presen t chapter and described in ,

some little detail .

I f pot atoes are being de al t with they are rst washed ,

to free them from adherent s oil M aize may be coarsely .

ground and soaked in water for a day or it may be merely ,

mixed with one or t wo p a rts of water T he p otatoes .

or maize are then l led into a c oo k er or c onverter

a kind of boiler shaped like a n in verted cone an d
heated with ste a m u nder pressure in order to gelatin ize ,

the starch T he m ass is kept stirred either by means

.
,

of a stirring a pparatus t ted inside the converter or ,

by blowing in j ets of ste am or air at the lower part of

the vessel When the steaming is completed the result
.
,

ing pulpy mass is blown out from the lower end of the
converter into t he mash tun .

Sacchari f i c a t ion of the M as h Before the gelatinized

.

st arch is blown out a quantity of ground malt mixed

,

with cold water is placed in the mash tun which is ,

tted wi th a stirrin g apparatus and a system of cooling

pipes fed with cold water By this me a n s the ho t
.

m a sh is cooled and well mixed with the malt as it enters

the tun T he process is so regulated that the temperature
.
14 A L C OHOL

of the m ash is kept at or ab out 55 C ( 130 F )

.

.

for 20 t o 30 minutes A par t of the hot mash ab out .

,

on e sixth of the wh ole is retai ned in the c onvert er until

-

the end of this period when it is run out in to the main ,

quantity and well mixed with it in order t o raise t he ,

tem perature of the wh ole r st to ab out 62 C ( 144 ,

.

and n ally t o 68 C ( 154

.

I n t his operation the starch is c onverted int o sugar

as e xplai n ed bel ow When the c onversi on i s nished
.
,

the resulting sweet mash or wort is cooled ,
"

, ,

passed through s ome form of strainer t o remove solid

particles of Skin husk etc and run into the ferm entin g
, , .
,

vats or wash backs

T he c ompletion of the chan ge
.

from st arch to sugar is ascertained by test in g a little

of the mash with solution of iodine A S long as an y st arch .

rem ai ns un changed it gi ves a blue colour with the

,

iodin e due to the form ati on of i odide of st arch When

, .

no such blue c olour i s Obtain ed the starch has all been

tran sformed .

T heory of t h e F ore goin g P r ocess T he prel iminary .

steamin g is for the purpose of soften ing the st archy

material and thus making it more amenable t o attack
,

by cert ain substances termed enzymes whi ch are
, ,

presen t in the malt T he particular enzyme concern ed

.

in the transform ati on of starch t o sugar is on e kn own

as
diast ase
or
amylase
At a temperature of .

50

55 C

( 122. 13 1

diast
-
ase acts
rapidly on

gelatinized st arch c onverting it rst into pr oduct s

,

in termediate between st arch and sugar dext rins

and ma l t odex t rin s and n ally into a particular kind
of sugar called

malt ose
St arch itself is not directly .

fermentable to alc ohol maltose is c onverted int o

dextrose which is directly ferm entable .

T he reason for adding the malt is now clear I t .

supplies the diastase .

 T HE M AN UFACT URE OF A L C O HOL 15

The o bj ect of heating the m ash t o 68 C at the close

.

of the mashing pro cess is t o destr o y deleteri o us bacteri a .

I f this were n o t d one these micr o organisms would ,

-

devel op du ring the subsequent fermentati on using up ,

a p art of the maltose t o sust ain their gr owth and t o ,

this extent diminish ing the yield o f alc oh ol On the .

other han d a higher t emperature than 68 C wou ld

.
,

weaken or destroy the activity o f the diast ase and this ,

is n ot desirable Alth ough the st arch may have all

.

disappear ed there still remains some of the intermedi ate

,

mal t ode x t r in s ; and if the di astase is n ot destroyed i t

c an c ontinue its action on these transform in g them into ,

fermentable m alt o se whereas in the absence of diastase

they are Simply so much l oss .

F erm enta ti on The sa ccha rie d mash or wort is

.

n ow therefore essential ly a soluti on o f mal tose with

, , ,

small am ounts of residual dextrins nitr ogen ous matters , ,

etc and s ome active diast ase When it has been co oled
.
, .

d own to ab out 20 C (68 F ) it is mixed with yeast

.
0
.

pitched t o st art the fermentation .

T he yeast is usually prepared in a separate sm all

mash or bub F irst h owever this mash is often
.
, ,

soured by in oculating it with a cul tur e of lactic

acid bacilli and allowing them to gr ow until they have
,

produced a cert ain amount of lactic acid H ere we .

must digress for a moment to explain the reason for this .

I t is found advan tageous to have a smal l degree of

.

aci dity in the wort or wash during fermentation
as the acid both tends to prevent the development of
un desir able bacteri a an d favours the gr o wt h of the yeast .

T he necessary acid is sometimes added di rectly as so ,

much sulphuric acid or commercial lactic acid or , ,

hydr ouori c acid I n other cases lactic acid is produced

.

in the bub as just menti oned by allowing the pure
, ,

baci l li to grow in it When suf cient acid has been

.
16 A L C OH O L

devel oped the bub is heated for half an h our to about

,

74 C ( 16 5 F ) in o rder to destr o y the baci l li and prevent

. .

the production o f further acid in the main wort T hen .

the bub is c ooled do wn t o 30 C (86 a little yeast is

.

added and the bub is set to ferment I n the c ourse of

, .

a few h ours a vigorous growth of yeast takes place .

A p ortion is reserved for making the next bub and the ,

rem ai nder added t o the main wort .

F erment ati on s oon c ommences as is seen by bubbles ,

o f gas (carbonic acid ) being evo lved and the appear ance ,

o f a froth due t o the growth of the yeast

, T his growth .

t a kes place best at a temperature of about 17 2 1 C

-

.

(63 70


-
and mar k s the rst stage of the fer
mentati on T hen the temperature rises and the main
.
,

ferment ati on takes place with much evoluti on o f gas ,

and a gitation of the liquid as the sugar is c onvert ed ,

into a lcohol an d c arbon dioxide (carb onic acid ) A fter .

about t wo days this stage is n ished the w a sh becomes

gradually quiescent and after an other day or so the
,

operati on is c omplete (The evolved carbon dioxide.

-

may be c ollected and c ondensed by suitable plant and ,

util ized in the manufacture Of mineral waters for ,

refrigerati o n and other commercial pu rp oses ) T he

, .

temperature of the wash sh ould not rise above 30 C

.

(86 F ) at any t ime and du ring the third day it is
.
,

preferably kept at ab ou t 26 C (79 C o ils o f piping

.

a t t emp e ra t or s through which cold water circu lates

are used if necessary to reduce the t empe rature during
, ,

the second or main stage of the fermentati on T he .

fermented wash c ontains ab out 12 per cent o f a lcoh ol

at the end of the Operati on when a thick mash is
used or from 4 ; t o 7% per cent when the mash is less
,

c oncentrated as is usual in this c ountry , .

T he ory of the F ermentatio n P rocess Yeast as .

,

already n oted in the introductory chapter is a livin g ,

 FI G . 2

CO
L L E CT I N G C AR B O N I I
D OX DEFR OM F ER M EN TAT I O NS
N T F OR
-

T h ree stage
- Compressor
18 A L C O H OL

( vegetable ) organism which when placed in a suitable

, ,

medium and under proper c onditi ons of temperature ,

wi l l gr ow and reproduce itself D u ring gr owth the .

yeast cells secrete va rious enzymes We have already .

seen that in malt there is present an enzyme diastase , ,

which has the p ower of transforming starch into sugar

(maltose) T he enzym es of yeast have properties
.

di fferent from th ose of diastase and can carry the ,

transformati on process furt her .

One of t hese yeast enzymes ma lt ase attacks the

-

, ,

m al tose and c onve rts it int o the s impler sugar dextrose

, .

T hen a second enzyme zy ma se attacks the dextrose , , ,

and decomp oses it int o alcoh ol and carbon di o xide gas .

T he latter escapes int o the air (or is somet imes c ollected

and utilized ) the alcoh o l remains in the fermented wash
,
.

Alcoh ol and carbon di oxide then are the main

-

, ,

products of the alc oholic fermentation o f sugar by yeast .

They are n ot however the only pr oduct s S mall

, , .

quantities of other substances are pr oduced simul t an

e ou sl y,
the principal being glycerin fusel Oil and , ,

succinic acid with still sm al ler pr oport i ons o f other acids

,

and b y products
-
.

I t may be menti oned that by m odifying the c onditi on s ,

o f fe rm entation a relatively large pr op o rti o n o f glycerin

,

c an be obtained o f c ourse at the expense of the alcohol

yield I t was by this mean s that Germany d u ring the
.
,

last two years of the war obtained the glycerin necessary

,

for the making of explo sives On adding s odi u m .

sulphite t o the wort under proper c onditi o ns it was

, ,

fou nd that glycerin e q uivalent t o ab out 20 per cent of

the weight of the sugar c ould be obtained .

Su gar W o rts Where the material employed is n o t

.

starch but sugar substances such as m olasses beet

, ,

j uice or raw sugar itself there is o f c ourse no necessity

, ,

for the mashing pr ocess used in the case o f p otatoes and

 FIG . 3

PL AN T FO R CO
L L ECTI N C AR N DI OX I DE
G BO -

RO M
F FER N TAT I O NS
M E

C ondenser P u rifying
,
an d Bottling App arat u s
2O A L C O H OL

grain T he sugar materials are simply di ssolved in

.

water t o form a w ort of the proper specic gravity

( 1 0 30 an d may then if desired be fermented
, , .

I t is a c omm on practice however with m olasses t o

, ,

add a little acid to the di luted material a n d b oil t he ,

latter for a Short time in order t o sterilize it by
destroying injuri ous bacteri a A s a lready menti oned .
,

a slight acidity in the wash is advantage ous during

ferment ation .

An other p oint may al so be n oted here The particular .

form o f sugar n amely sucr ose which is present in both

, , ,

cane sugar molasses and beet sugar molasses is like the , ,

maltose pr oduced from starch not directly fermentable ,

to alcoh ol Before this transformati on can take place

.

the sucrose must be resolved int o two simpler sugars ,

termed de xt rose a n d laevulose T his is effected by a .

th ird enzyme i n vert ase present in yeast I t can also

, , . ,

however be brought ab out by b oilin g the molasses

,

or sugar j uice wi th a mineral acid

(sulphuric or hy dro
chloric acid ) and this i s s ometimes d one as a prelimin
ary operati on before addi ng the yeast A fter boiling .

the acid ied m olasses for an hour the acid is nearly ,

n eutralized with lime or soda an d the liqu id co oled ,

d own to the proper temperature for fermentati on .

The mixture of dextrose and laevul ose pr oduced by

this trea t men t of sucr ose i s termed invert sugar .

I t is so called because its acti on on polarized li ght is

in the inverse sense t o that exerted by the origi n al
sucrose P olarized light we may rem a rk in passing
.
, ,

is much used in the analysis of sugar by mean s of a

specially devised in strument the
-
p olarimeter,
or

saccharimeter .

A my l o Fermentati on Before leaving the subj ect

.

o f ferment ati on we must n o te briey that malt i s not

,

the only substance which can transform st arch int o

 T HE M AN UFA CT URE OF AL C OH O L 21

sugar n or yeast the only agent capable of c onverting

,

sugar into alcoh ol C ert ain m oulds or mucors

.

can secrete the n ecess a ry enzymes viz diastase m al tase , .

, , ,

and zymase and h ence can effect b oth the sa cch a rica
,

tion of star ch and the further con version of the products

in to alcohol A st erilized mash is inoculated with a
.

culture of the mould which gr ows very rapidly at the ,

proper temperature3 5 38 C (95 10 0 F

) and

.

.

e ffects the conversi on of st a rch int o alcohol at one

operati on without t h e use of either malt or yeast
, T he .

fermentation stage h owever is rather a slow one ; , ,

an d hence in practice a small quan tity o f a special

yeast is added when the sa cch a rica t ion stage is well

under way in order to hasten the operati on This
, .

pr ocess is employed on a large scal e in some continental

districts .

D istillati on The ferm ented wash whether obt ained

.
,

fr om starch material s or fr om sugar products is now ,

ready for distilling T he obj ect of this process is to

.

separate the al c oh ol from the water and non v olatile -

subst ances such as fragments of husk glycerin yeast

, , , ,

protein matters and min er al sal t s T he general prin

, .

ci p l e o f simple dist i llation has already been explained

in the in tr oductory chapter .

I n this country the Co ffey or patent still is

largely used and on the C ont inent stills of essentially
,

simi l ar type whi ch produce strong alcohol (9496

,

per cent ) from the wash in one continuous operation .

T hat is the wash enters at one end of the still and from
, ,

the other end a continuous stre am of str ong spirit issues .

M odern alcohol stills indeed are marvels of ingenious , ,

and effective devices t o obviate the necessity of r e dist ill a

ti on We can do no more here th an explain as simply
.
,

as may be the general principle of these devices taki n g

, ,

C offey s still as example .

3
22 A L C OH O L

Thisstill c onsis t s essential ly of t w o c olumns of

perforated copper plates xed horiz onta lly on e over ,

another so as t o form a series of Chambers enclo sed at ,

the sides by wooden walls One colu mn is cal led the .

analyser the other is the rectier
,
I n the an al yser .

the alcohol is freed from the soli d matters of the wash

and from much of the water in the rect ier the remain
der o f the water or m o st of it is eliminated leaving
, , ,

nearly pure alc oh ol t o p ass out as the nished product .

T he wash enters at the topmost plate of the an alyser ,

spreads over the plate to fo rm a thin layer and p a sses ,

through a sh o rt tube int o the chamber below where it ,

spreads o ver the next plate passes thr ough in the same ,

manner and so on to the l owest ch a mber M eanwhile

, .
,

a current of steam is bein g bl o wn upwards through the

ch am bers T he stea m bubbling t hrough the perf orations
.
,

in the plates heats the descending wash and c a rries

, ,

o ff the al cohol vapour as it rises T he same thing .

happens at the next plate and thus by the t ime the

wash reaches the lowest plate it has been deprived of all
its alcohol ; whilst the uprisin g steam bec omes richer
and richer in alcohol vapour When it reaches the t op
-
.
,

t his mixture of steam and alcohol passes out of the

an alyser and is led by a pipe into the b ottom of the
,

rectier .

Through the rectier from top to bottom there passes

,

a zig
,

zag tube conta in ing cold wash on its way fr om the

wash bac k s to the an al yser T his serves as a kind of
-
.

condenser keeping the chambers of the rectier more

,

or less cool The mi xed steam an d alcohol vapou r

.
-

passes upward from one c ool chamber to the next ,

and in each chamber m ore and more of the ste a m is

condensed while the alcohol havin g a l ower boiling
, ,

point th a n the water is less easily condensed a n d , ,

becomes more and m ore free from water as it nears

 FIG . 4

C OFFEY S
'
P ATEN T C O N TI N UOUS WORKI N G
-

STEAM ST I L L
24 AL C OH OL

the top F in ally it c ondenses as strong alcohol on an

.
,

unperforated spirit plate an d passes ou t t o the ,

Spirit receiver .

Fusel Oil I t is not however only water that is

.
, ,

sep ar ated from the alcohol in the rectier c olumn .

V ari ous impurities chie y fu sel oil havi ng a high er , ,

boilin g p o in t than that of alcohol are also condensed ,

in the lower ch a mbers and c ollect in the bottom of ,

the colum n T hese are term ed hot fein ts
. T hey are .

at r st passed agai n into the a n al yser to rec over the

small qu an tity of a lcohol still mixed with them but
towards t h e end of the di st illation the quantity o f oil
increases and the mixt ure is collected as
, feints
in a separate receiver where the fusel oil separates and ,

is skimmed off A fter purication by washi n g an d .

redistilling the fusel oil is employed for ma king amyl

,

acet ate (u sed as a a v ou rin g essence) a n d in the manu ,

facture of cellul oid varnishes dope an d leather , ,

substitut es (See C hapter V II I )

. .

R ectificat i on T he alcoh ol which is n ally c oll ected

.

in the spiri t receiver of a paten t still such as that ,

described is usuall y a nearly pure product I t retain s

about 4
.
,

6 per cent of water an d only very sm all

quantitiesO ften mere traces
,

C f o ther imp u rities .

With out any furt her purication it is used for by far

the greater number of manufacturing requirements .

S ometimes however it is re quired to be of speci al

, ,

pur ity as for the maki ng of delicate perfum es S ome

, .

times ag ai n especi ally on the Cont inent where there ar e

, , ,

numer ous small distill eries run as adj uncts t o farms and
fr uit growing the type of sti l l empl oyed is less effective
-

, ,

and pr oduces a much cruder spirit th an that obt ain ed

in the large distilleries I n such cases the alc ohol is .

f urther p u ried by special recticati on

About .

an e qual volume of water is added t o the spi rit and the ,

 FI G . 5

DOUB L E COL UM N C ON T I N UOUS ST I L L

-

F or P rod u ci ng Spirit 9 5 t o 97 per cent S t r ength in O n e Opera ti o n

26 A L C OH O L

mixture is redistill ed Some of the impurities pass

.

o ver in the rst part of the di stillate

o thers in the last part f a ilin gs the pu ried alc ohol

formin g the middle fracti on T hese fracti ons are col .

l ect ed separately by s ome re ct iers others use a type

o f sti l l whi ch delivers the pure alcohol cont inu ou sly ,

separat ing the impu ri ties and passing them into other
receivers simultan e ously F iltrati on of the diluted .

al cohol through charcoal with subsequen t distil l ati on , ,

is also used as a means of obtainin g a pure spirit from a

cruder form .

Yiel d of A l co h ol fr om var i ous M aterials T heoretical ly . ,

pure st arch woul d yield 56 8 per cent of alcohol an d ,

pure cane sugar (sucrose ) per cent by weight ,

.

I n practice however various sm a ll l osses o ccu r so that

, , ,

the full yield is never obtained T he actual yield fr om .

starchy materi al s for inst ance may be t aken as a p

, ,

proximately 50 per cent of the starch they c ontain ,

instead of 56 8 per cent T hat is about 50 1b of alcohol

-
. .

wi l l under good working conditions be produced fr om

, ,

every 10 0 lb of actu al st arch present in the raw mater

.

i a l s mashed . T hese raw material s themselves n aturall y

vary rather widely in the am oun t of st ar ch (or sugar )
they contain but the following table sh ows the average
yields Obt ain ed in large distilleries on the C ontinent

T AB L E II Y I EL D OF AL C OH O L
A l cohol obt a i n e d .

M i
a t er a l . G a l l on s p er t on .

Barley 72
M ai ze 79
M o l asses beet ,
64
can e 76
O a ts 65
P o ta t o e s 26
Ri c e 85
Rye 75
S u g ar beet s 1 1 t o 24
B y p er mi ssion f
o B la ir, Ca mp bell G M cl a m
FI G 6
.

T R I PL E COL UM N
~
CONTI N UOUS STI L L
F or P r od u ci ng ne arly P ur e Spi ri t 95 t o 9 7 e r en t
p c
S t r engt h in On e Operati on
28 AL COHOL
A more e xt ended list includin g various fru its an d
,

t r opica l p roducts has been compiled by a wri ter in the

,

S cien t ic A ustra l i a n ( 19 18 ; p . I n this c ase t he

yield is expressed in gallons of 95 per cent alcohol
i e appro ximately the strength at which the spiri t
. .

is a ctu a ll y distilled
TAB L E Y I E L D O F A L C O H OL
G a l l on s f
o A lcohol
M i
a t er a l .
p er t on .

S u gar mol a sse s 65

So rgh u m stal ks 12 ;
Whe at 83
Barley 70
M aize 35
Sorgh u m gr ain s 87
P o ta t oe s 20
Sweet p ot a t oe s 35
S u gar beet 18
Artic ho kes 22
39
Apples and pe a rs l2
Apri co ts and peac he s l l
G rape s 18
B an a n as 13
Water mel o n s 3
" a mi a palm (M a cr oza mi ) a 18
G rass tree (X a n t hor r hoe a ) 12
Sawd u st (soft w c ods) 20
 C H A P T ER I I I
A L C OHOL FROM CE L L UL OSE S UB STAN CES :

SYN THETI C A L C OHOL

FER M EN TA B L E sugars can be obtained n o t only from
st arch but from more unlikely l ooking materi als such
,
-

as waste wood and straw I t is also possible to produce .

alcohol without employing ferment ati on at all : by

building it up as it were fr om simpler substances
, , .

Although no very c onsiderable quantities are at present

made by these meth ods they ar e imp ort ant processes , ,

inasmuch as the raw materi als are not foodstu ffs but ,

waste products or cheap non edible subst ances Hence -

.

whatever amounts of alcohol are produced from these

sources whether large or small help to c onserve the
, ,

st arch and sugar products available for use as food .

CE L L UL O SE M ATER I A L S
W oo d W aste
Wood contains about 50 per cent of
.

cellulo se subst ances and a part of thes e can be convert ed

,

into fermentable sugars by treatment with acids u nder

pressure .

S awdust or other wo od waste is placed in a large

rot atin g cyl inder or gl obe and su lphur dioxi de gas ,

passed in T hen steam is intr oduced until a press ure

.

of 10 0 1b is reached and the temperat ure brought up

.
,

to 135 163 C (275 325

-

T he c ontainer is
.

rotated sl owly during ab out three quarters of an hour -

,

t o all ow of the sulphurous acid obtain in g free access

t o the wood Under these conditi ons the acid attacks
.

the cellu l ose constituents partly decomposing them , ,

29
30 A L C OH O L

and tran sforming a portion into fermentable sugar like -

bodi es .

When t hi s process is completed the excess of sulphu r ,

dioxide is blown off an d the woody residue extracted

,

with water to diss olve out the resultin g sugar substances .

T he solution thus obt ained is neutrali zed with lime ,

fermented with yeast and distilled t o separate the ,

alcohol About 16 2 1 gallon s of alcohol are obtained

.
-

per t on of dry wo od treated .

Thi s process has been operated for several years

in the United S t ates though on n o very large sc a le
,
.

At presen t there are said to be two plants in operati on ,

on e at G eorget own South C ar olin a and the other at

, ,

F ullerton L ouisian a ; their output s ome time a go

,

was about gall on s of alcoh ol per day

in each case P r obably it may be sai d that the process
.

is successful where the conditi ons are favourable for

obt ain ing go od cheap an d c onstant supplies of the
, ,

raw materi a l Such places h owever are relatively

.
, ,

few and sawdust is a bul k y article t o transp ort so that

, ,

its c ollecti on from outlying areas is inc onvenient an d

C o stly Hence no very c onsiderable pr oducti on of
.

al cohol from sawdust has hitherto been effected .

Sulp hite p ul p L i q u or
-
I n c ou nt ries where w o od pulp
.

is made by treating wood with sulph ites very large ,

q uantities of waste liqu or are produced T his li quor .

contains a small am ount of fermentable su gars about ,

2 per cent or less arising fr om the action of the sulphit e

,

on the cellulose of the wood M ethods have been fou nd .

for protably recovering these sugars from the liqu ors

and c onvert ing them int o alcohol .

T he free sulphurous acid c ont ained in the li quo r i s

p a rtly expelled by evaporati on an d the remainder ,

neutralized with lime and chalk Af ter c oolin g the .

neutral ized liquor t o the proper temperature a yeast ,

 AL C OHO L FRO M CE L L UL O SE S UB STAN C E S 31

fo od such as malt extract or milk whey is added t ogether ,

with yeast and the liqu or is set to ferment When the

, .

fermentati on is c omplete the a lcohol is separated by ,

distillati on as usual .

T his is a very n oteworthy instance of the utilization

o f a waste product T rue the quantity of alc ohol .
,

obtained from this s ource is smal l c ompared with the

t ot al w orld producti on but it is substantial in the few ,

loc al ities where it can be carried on Ab out a milli on .

gall ons a year are recovered fr om waste sulphite

liquor in Sweden an d there are fact ories in N o rway
, ,

S witzerland G ermany and America, , .

R ice Straw An interestin g attempt is n ow being

.

made t o Obt ain alc oh ol c ommercially fr om rice straw

and husk T his is a cheap materi al available in large
.
,

quantities in tr opical countries .

T he straw is soften ed by steaming and treated with ,

hydrochl oric acid or with bleaching p owder and chl orine

, ,

in order t o disintegrate the bres T he softened m ass .

is then pulped and the hydr olysis of the cellul ose

,

completed by heating with diluted hydr ochl oric acid

under pressure A fter the c onversi on t o sugar is
.

n ished the acid is neutralized an d the solution of

, ,

sugars fermented and distilled .

I t is un dersto od that large scale experimental tri als -

of this pr o cess are t o be made in I ndia t o see whether ,

the producti on of al coh o l from these and similar cheap

cel lul ose m ateri a ls can be denitely established Success .

would open ou t the prospect of utilizing a large amount

1
of waste cell ulose substances as sources of alc oh ol .

1
M r Ford o f ca r a n d tractor fame h a s re c ently
H enry
I a m n o w m a king the be s t f el my
.
, ,

been q o ted a s sa ying :

u u

trac to rs ca n u se o u t of straw I a m pu tting u p a d oll ar

.

pl ant n ow t o m an u fac t re al cohol fro m s traw al o ne ; j u st t o

u

sh ow peo ple th at it ca n be d one (O l d G a s j o r n l 19 20 . i an u a , ,

x viii ,
32 C OHO
AL L

S YN THE TIC AL COHO L

( I ) F rom Cal ci u m C ar b i de N o d oubt many readers

.

are aware t hat acetylene gas often used as a sou rce ,

o f light is obtained by the action of water on c alcium

,

c arbide T he water decomposes the carbide gi ving

.
,

o ff a stream of acetylene which can then be burn ed in

,

lamps or utili zed for other purposes I t may for ins t ance
, .
, ,

by appropri ate Chemical treatmen t be con vert ed into

a liquid subst ance termed al dehyde (acetaldehyde) .

This al dehyde is Closely related to alcohol ; i t can

readily be pr oduced from alcohol ; and c onversely it
can though less easily be tr ansformed into al c ohol
, , .

The di fference in the chemical com p osition of the t wo

subst ances c onsists in the fact that alcohol cont ains
more hydrogen than does aldehyde N ow it is found .

that if the vapour of aldehyde is mixed with hydrogen ,

and the mi xtu re passed over nic kel powder at a tem

p er a t u re of 140 C (284 F

. the al dehyde combines
with the hydrogen and is thu s con verted into alcohol
, .

T his process was worked for some time durin g the

period of the war but l ittle has been heard of it since ,

and probably it is not a remun erative m an u facture in

n orm al circumst an ces T he raw materi als for maki ng
.

the calcium carbide are coke and limestone ; but the

c arbide can only be produced Cheaply where an econ o
mic al source of electricity such as water power is , ,

avai lable to work the electri c furn aces used N ever .

t he l ess it is a notable and interesting fact that alcohol

can be Obtain ed in quantity from subst ances li ke
coal an d limest one as the mai n raw material s .

(2 ) F rom Coke Oven Gas T his gas emitted as a .

,

b y product from ovens in which coal is co k ed c onsis t s

-

mainly of hydrogen (50 per cent ) and meth a ne or ,

m arsh gas (25 per cent ) with sm a l ler quantities of

,

nitrogen water vapour and t arry impurities Amon g

, ,
.
 AL C O H OL FROM C EL L U L O SE S UB STAN CES 33

its min or c onstituents is a very smal l prop ortion about

2 per cento f ethylene gas I t is apparently so .
, ,

insign ican t a c onsti tuent that one might almost wonder

how it c ould even be detected in such a mixture let ,

al one separated and utilized Ye t it can be converted .

into alc oh ol and if all the ethylene produced from the

co al c arb onized in British c o ke o ven s (about 15 mill ion
tons p er a n n u m) were thus converted it is c al cul ated ,

that the yearly supply of al cohol from this sour ce

wou ld be no less th a n 24 m ill ion ga ll ons .

H ere let us digr ess for a moment t o recall an epi sode

in the history of chemistry F araday about a century .
,

ago was experimentin g with ethylene and found that

, ,

t his gas could be abs orbed by strong sulphuric acid .

He gave a spec imen of acid which had taken up eighty ,

times its own volume of ethylene to H en n ell an other , ,

chemist of that peri od S ome years afterw a rds H en n ell

.
,

recorded the fact that in the mi xture gi ven him by

F araday he had identied another acid (ethyl su lphur ic
acid ) and that on addin g water to this an d distilling it
, , ,

alcohol was produced T his observation it is

which after rem ai nin g as it were a mere laboratory
, , ,

curiosity for nearly a hundr ed years h as now been made ,

the basis of a process for manufacturin g al cohol fr om an

apparently worthless b y product I t is one of many -
.

illustrations which might be cited showing how a purely ,

scientic research carried out in pursuit of kn owledge

,

and with no motive of ulterior pr ot may lead to

.

resul ts of c onsiderable val ue t o the community at

large .

T he coke o ven gas is rst puried to eli min ate t arry

-

matters a mmonia n aphthalene benzene hydr ocarbons

, , ,

and hydrogen sulphide Olen e hydrocarbons other th an

.

ethylene are next removed by passin g the gas through

a t ower containing rather weak su lphuric acid (80 per
34 AL C O HOL

cent ) at the ordinary temperat u re T hen the gas is .

heated t o a t em p era t ure between 60 and 80 C ( 140

.

176 and passed through anoth er t ower c ont ain ing
strong sulphuric acid (95 per cent ) heated to the same
temperature I t is here that the ethylene is ta k en ou t
. .

About seven tenths of it is absorbed by the warm

-

strong acid in 2 Aminut es T he acid can be used until

.

it has absorbed up t o 5 per cent of its weight of ethylene .

From the abso rpti on t ower this acid now contain ing ,

the ethylene in the form of ethyl hydrogen su lphate

(Hen n e ll s ethyl sulphuric acid

is led to a special
fo rm of distill in g column where it meets with a cu rrent
,

o f steam .Th is dilutes the acid a n d dec omposes the,

ethyl hydr ogen su lphate int o al cohol and sul phuric

acid T he heat produced during the dilution is suf cient
.

t o raise the temperat u re of the diluted acid to 90

10 0 C -
.

( 194 2 l 2
-

Under these conditions the alcohol
distils o ver is subse quently c ondensed and n a l ly
, ,

leaves the plan t as 95 per cent alcohol .

T he diluted acid is concentrated by heating and used ,

over again for the absorption of more ethylene .

T his process has passed beyond the purely e x p eri

ment al stage but at the time of writing has not developed
,

int o man u f a cture on a l a rge sc al e I t appears however

.
, ,

to be the most promising of the synth etic methods ,

an d there is n o doubt whatever that alcohol can be

produced in quantity by the process T he commercial .

prospe cts depend o f course upon the cost of pr oduction

, ,

relatively to the value of the al cohol produced I f the .

method ca n establish itself permanently it wi ll be of ,

c o nsiderable technical import ance T here is no li keli .

hood that the full theoretical quantity ,

gallons yearly correspondin g with the coal carboniz ed

in Great Britain wi l l ever be obtained becauset o
,

mention only one obstaclethere are many sm al l

, ,
 A L C OHOL FRO M CE L L UL O SE S UB STAN CES 35

c oke o ven plan ts where it would probably not pay t o

-

install a rec overy apparatus But even if only one half

.
-

of the total quantity sho u ld eventual ly be obtained ,

it wi ll be a very subs t antial addition t o our resources ,

Since our present annual production of alcoh ol is only

about ga llons for all pu rposes .
 C H A P TE R I V
V ARI ETIES AN D P ROP ERTI ES OF AL C OH O L

A L C OH O Lcomes into commerce under vari ous forms as , ,

for example abso lute alcohol rectied spirit spirit

, , ,

of wi n e methylated spirit and so on T he present

, , .

chapter is devoted to a description of these di fferent

varieties .

Absolute A lc oh ol Even the most effective stills

.

do not yield al c oh o l entirely free from water T o remove .

the last four or ve per cent of water rec ourse must be

had t o chemical treatment F or this purpose some .

subst an ce i s chosen which having a m a rked a f nity

,

for water wi ll ret ai n the latter and thus dehydrate

, ,

the alcohol when mixed with it .

Qu ic k lime is the dehydrating agent generally employed .

Spirit of about 94 to 96 per cent strengt h is produced

directly by the large continuous sti lls mentioned in
C hapter I I and some of this spirit is ta ken as the starting
,

point I t is digested wi th about one fourth to one third

.
- -

of its weight of quicklime in a steam j acketed vessel -

provided with a stirring app aratus to k eep the lime an d

alcoh ol well mixed T he alc ohol is then distilled off
.
,

the vap ou rs before c onden sation being passed through

, ,

a vessel cont ai ning more lime As the rst an d last .

portions of the dis t illate are prone to be rather wea ker

than the middle portion they may be reserved fo r
,

re treatment in a later operation T he middle fracti on

-
.

is very nearly free fr om water a n d may be s ol d as the ,

commercial absolute alc ohol but if the chemically

pure al cohol is required a sec ond or a third tre a tmen t
,

with l ime m ay be necessary .

36
 V A R I ET I ES AN D P RO P ERTI ES OF AL C O HO L 37

Fo r small operations if strong alc oh o l is n o t at hand

,

to start with it may readily b e o btained by add ing a

,

goo d pro p orti on o f dry (re c ently heated ) potassiu m

ca rb onate t o weaker spirit and distill ing off the upper ,

layer of alc oh ol which fo rms in the mixture .

C hemica lly pure alc oh ol entirely free fr om water , ,

is very di fcult to prepare and is only empl oyed in ,

scientic researches I t b oils at 78 3 C ( 172 9 F )

.

.
-

.

u nder a bar ometric pressure o f 760 mill imetres ; and

has the spec ic gra v ity 0 79359 at 156 C (60

.

c ompared with water a t the same temperature I t is a .

m obile col ourless li quid with a spirituous odour and

, ,

a pungent t aste Whe n igni t ed it burns with a pale blue

.
,

ame sm okeless and n on lumin ous I t mixes with

,
-
.

water in all prop orti ons .

As met with in c ommerce absolute alcohol u sually ,

contains from 0 5 t o 1 5 per cent of water T he British

- -
.

P h arm ac opoeia requires it t o contain not more than

1 per cent of water by weight and to have a specic ,

gravity from 0 7940 to 0 796 9 T o ensure that the

-
.

alcoh ol d oes n ot contain a n excessive quantity of water

it must c onform t o the foll owing test :
Anhydrous
copper sulphate shaken occasi ona lly during t wo or
th r ee h ours with about fty times its weight o f absolute

alcoh ol d oes n ot assume a decidedly blue c olour .

P l ai n Sp irit or P lain B ritish Sp irit

, This is the alcohol .

as ordinarily sent out b y the distilleries plain , ,

because n o a v ou ri n gs or colourings are added to it .

T he s t rength is usually between 94 and 96 per cent by

volume and specic gravity 0 8 197
, 0 81 19 I t is the .

spiri t usuall y received for exa mple by manufacturi ng

, ,

chemists to be used in the making of tinctures and other

,

spirituous medicines ; by essence an d perfume makers

for the comp ounding of a v our in g essences and of
perfumes ; and by methylators for conversion into
4( I 4SG ) E
38 AL C OHOL

methylated spirit whi ch is employed in varnish ma king

, ,

as a solvent for dyes in the production of tran sparen t ,

so aps and in numerous other industries (S ee C hapter V )

, . .

R ectifie d Sp irit Sp iritus V ini R e ct i fi ca t u s or ,

By rectied spirit is generall y understood

in this c ountry the
Alc ohol 90 per cent of the
,

P harmac opoeia I t i s plain spirit (see ab o ve ) reduced

.

by a ddition of water to the unifo rm strength o f 90 per

cent by volume for use in ph a rm acy it is in fact the , ,

ph armacist s st a ndar d al c oh ol from which he prepares ,

v ar ious spirituous medicines an d the four o ffi cial diluted

alc ohols
T he specic gr avi ty of rectied spiri t is
.

0 8 337 and it contains by weight 856 8 per cent of

, , ,

absolute alcohol and 14 3 2 per cent of water

, .

I n a more general sense rectied spiri t i ncludes ,

any al c oh o l which has undergone the pr ocess of recti

ca t ion (see Ch apter I I ) t o render it suit able for some
special p urpose such as the making of delicate perfu mes
,

or particular beverages .

D ilute d A l coh ols F or use in c ompoundin g medicin es

.

there ar e four o fcial diluted al coh ols described in
the P harmac op oeia T hey c on tain respec t ively 70 .
,

60 45 and 20 per cent o f abs o lute alcoh o l by v olume

, ,

an d are ob t ai ned by diluting the 90 per cent alc ohol with

water as Shown in the accompanying t able which ,

gives also the respective specic gravities .

( 1) (2 )
Vlm fwtr Vlm e of
Al coho lr r
e q ui e d. S p e CI c g
ra vity . t o
o u
b m
1 l it
e d w th
f 90 p
re
e

o
o
i xe
a e
i
er
t l
ce n
o u 90 p er
l
a co ho t o b e
l
di l u t ed t o l i t re a t
t l hl
ce n a co o . 15 6

C (
. 60

C u bi c cen t i met r es . C ubi c ce n t i met r es .

70 per c ent 0 8899 777 8

60 0 -
9 1 34 536 5 666 7
45 0 9 4 35 1 0 53 4 -
50 0 0
0 9 76 0 3558 0 222 2
 V AR I ETI ES AN D P ROP ERTI ES OF AL C O HOL 39

Either method ( 1) or method (2) can be used as may ,

be the m ore convenient .

I n connecti on with the diluti on of al cohol it may be

menti oned that a contraction of volume occurs when
water and alc oh o l are mixed so that the volume of the ,

m ixture is less than the sum of the o rigin al volum es

o f water an d al c ohol t aken separately T he amoun t of .

contracti on depends u pon the relative proportions of

the t wo liquids I t is a maximum when 52 volumes
.

o f alc ohol are mixed with 48 of water T he sum of these .

sep ar ate volum es is 10 0 b u t the volume of the mixt u re

, ,

if measured at the same temperature is less than 10 0 , .

I f the temperature chosen is 20 C (68 the resu ltin g

.

volume i n fact is o nl y
, ,

T his phenomen o n of contraction is of considerable

M p ort an ce in c onnection with calculation s of alcoholi c
strengt hs T ake for in st ance the preparati on of 45
'

.
, ,

per cent alc ohol as shown in the foregoing table method ,

We have t o add 10 53 4 cubic centimetres of water

-

to 1 litre cu cm ) of 90 per cent alcohol But

. . .

if there were n o c ontracti on the qu a ntity of water

woul d have been only cu cm that is an equal . .
, ,

volume sin ce the required strength 45 is exactly

, , ,

on e half of the origi n al strengt h of the alcohol 90 per

-

cent T o halve the strength we require to double the

.

volume but on account of the c ontraction we do n ot

,

double the volume of the al coh o l by addin g an equ a l

v olum e of water t o it M ore than an equal volume is
.

required n amely 10 53 4 cu cm instead of

, ,
-
cu cm. . . .

Sp irit o f W ine Thi s legally means rect

. ied spirit
, ,

of a stren gth not less th a n 43 above proof (see below)

which corresponds with 81 6 per cent of al coh ol by -

volume The ter m i s oft en used as synonym ous with

.

rectied spirit or more gener al ly with plain spirit

, ,

of indenite strength not lower than 43 over proof

.
40 AL C O H OL

P r oo f Sp irit scal pur p oses and in co mmercial

. For
transactions where duty
,

paid alc o hol is concerned ,

and where c onsequently the am ount of duty largely

, ,

determines the price proo f spirit is the standard
,

alc oho l T he duty is le v ied on spirit uous be verages

.
,

etc acc ording to their equi valen t in pro o f spirit One

.
, .

legal deniti on o f pro of sp irit is that which at the

temperature o f 5 1 F weighs exactly + t h par t s o f an .

e q ual measure of distilled water P r o o f spirit therefore .

"

, ,

is al c ohol of a par t icular strengt h I t contains in fa ct .

, ,

per cent o f alc oh o l by weight and 50 72 per cent ,

-

o f wat e r and its specic gravity is 0 9 1976 at 60 F

, .

water at the same temperature b eing t aken

as unity T he pr oport ion of alco h o l by v ol u me in pro o f
.

spiri t is 57 1 per cent For rough purposes it is con

-
.
,

v en i e n t t o remember that pr o o f spiri t cont ains nearly

one half its weight of alc oh ol and rather more than

-
,

one half of water

-
.

T he foregoing applies to proof spirit values a s employed

in the United Kingd om D ifferent countries however .
, ,

use different values T hus the United S tates proof .

spirit c ontains 50 per cen t of alc ohol by volu me .

Over proof an d under pr oof a re expressions
commonly used in trade and scal practice A particu lar .

spirit is said to be for example 60 o p (over proof ) , , . .

another is say 30 u p , , (under proof )
, L e t us see . .

what these expressions mean .

P roof spirit being taken as 10 0 per cent or ,

then 1 represents 1 per cent of pr oo f spirit ; 60 over

proof therefore den otes 60

,
10 0 ,
or 160
per cent of pro of spirit Al coh ol of 60 o p strength . . .

is thus 60 per cent stronger than pr oof spiri t ; 10 0

volumes of it contain as much real (absolute ) al c ohol as
do 160 volumes of pr o of spirit .

S imilarly alc oh ol of strength 30 u p is 30 per cent

,
.
 V AR I ETI ES AN D P ROP ERTI ES or A L C O H OL 41

weaker than proof 10 0 v olumes o f it c ontain 10 0 30

70 per cent of proo f spi rit .

Absolute alc oh ol is o f stren gth 753 5 o ver pro of .

That is 10 0 volumes o f abs olute alc oh ol are e qu ivalent

,

t o 175 35 v ol u mes o f pr oo f spirit

-
.

M eth y late d Sp ir it T he vari ou s fo rms o f this are

.

des c ribed in C hapter V (I ndustrial A lc oh ol ) .

I mmature Sp irit An Act of P arliament passed in

.

19 15 pr o vides that w ith certain excepti ons , no ,

British or foreign spiri ts sha l l be deli vered for h ome

c onsumpti on unless they have been wareh oused for at
least three years
Alc oh ol whi ch has n ot been kept in
.

wareh ouse for this statutory peri od is kn o wn as

immature spirit .

T he obj e c t o f this restricti on up on delivery is t o

en sure that spirit used for beverages such as whisky
shall be matured or mell owed by st orage Hence

.

the restri c ti on is n ot t o apply to duty free spirit which -

is n ot used for beverages but for industrial and scientic

purp oses N either d oes it apply t o spirits delivered to
.

re c t i e r s manufacturing Chemists
, makers of per fumes , ,

or o ther duly licensed persons subj ect t o the paym ent ,

o f any duty that may be imp o sed N or again is the .

, ,

secti on of th e A ct in questi on to in terfere with the supply

o f rectied spirit s o f wine for the purp o se o f making ,

medicines t o regi stered medi cal practit i oners t o

, ,

h ospitals and t o pers ons or rms entitled t o Carry on

,

the busin ess of a Chemist and druggist .

A s regards duty paid imm ature spirit used for makin g

-

medicines and for scienti c purp oses rebate of the ,

greater part of the duty may be obtained T he medi .

cines h owever must be articles recogni zed by the

, ,

C ommissi oners of Cust oms and Excise as articles used

for medical purp oses T here are certain spirituous
.

preparati ons such as tin cture of orange spirit of

, ,
42 AL C OHOL
Cinn amon and spirit o f peppermint which are used as
, ,

a v ouri n gs for be verages or as Constitu ents of pe r fumes ,

and these are not admitted to rebate although they are ,

frequently employed in medicines .

T he imp ort ance of thi s provision for obtain ing rebate

o f duty on alcohol used in making medicin es wi l l rea dily

be seen when it is mentioned that at the time of writing ,

the excise duty on immature spirit is 745 per .

proof gallon equivalent to 1 16 s 9d per bul k gall on

, . .

of 90 per cent alc ohol (approximately 58 o ver proo f) .

Of thi s amount a ll but 145 9d per proo f gallon or

, . .
,

23s 3d per bulk gallon at 58 o p

. . is recoverable as . .
,

rebate T hat is the duty on alcoh ol used for m a king

.
,

approved medicinal articles (or for scientic purp oses )

is at the present time after al lo wing for the rebate , ,

almost exactly one ft h of that Charged on the alcohol

-

employed as a beverage .

F or Obtaining rebate proper acc o unts of the sp irit ,

must be k ept showi ng the date bulk quantity stren gt h

, , , ,

and proof quantity of each consignment of spirit received ,

and the details of use T he following fact ors for convert

.

ing alcoh ol of vari ous strengt hs into proof gallons will

be foun d use ful in this connecti on
( 1) L I T R ES T O P R OO F G A L L O N S
M u l t i p ly 720 of .

A l cohol . l i t res by
90 per c ent ( ol ) v 0 347 ]
.

70
60 0 2 3 12
45 0 1733
20

(2 ) B UL K G AL L ON S T O P R OO F G AL L O N S
M u l t i p l y n o of
.

A l cohol . b ul k ga l l on s by
90 per cent ( v o l .
) 1 5779
-

70 1 2 26 3
60 1 0 5 10
45 0 7 877
20 0 3 4 87
 V ARI ET I ES AN D P RO P ER T I ES OF A L C O HO L 43

(3) FL I
U D O UN C ES TO P R OOF GAL L O N S
M u l t zp ly n o of .

A l cohol .
uid by
90 per c ent ( v ol .
) 0 0 0 9 86
70 0 0 0 76 6
60 0 0 0 6 56
45 0 0 0 4 92
20 0 0 0 2 18

En umerate d T his is a tari ff te rm T he

Sp irits . .

C ust oms auth o rities classify brandy rum imit ati on , ,

rum and geneva as enumerated spiri ts

,
whilst all
other irn p ort e d spiri ts ar e Classied as un enum erated .
"

Com po un ded Sp irits are spirits which have been
sweetened or avoured or both T he term is a general
, .

one and includes such articles as British brandy gin

, , ,

Sloe gin imitati on rum liqueurs and cordials ; but

, , ,

it is n ot c onned to beverages .

Sp irits use d as B everag es T he Chief of these are .

brandy gi n rum an d whisky T hey differ from

, , , .

plain Spirit by containing ingr edients which impart

speci al avours t o them T hese ingredients are either.

added directly as with gin or are pr oduced during the

, ,

ferment ati on of the special materials employed and n ot ,

c ompletely eliminated du ring the subsequent distillation

of the Spirits .

B ra n dy is distilled fr o m fermented grape j uice .

T he disti llation is so arranged that the spiri t is n ot

completely rectied from the fusel oil and other secondary
products (esters aldehydes acids , and it is these
, ,

sec ondary c onstituents especial ly the esters which
, ,

c onfer up on brandy its characteristic avour A S .

distilled brandy is col ourless but before being sent int o

, ,

c onsumpti on it i s c ol oured either by direct addition ,

of Caramel colourings or by extraction of c olouring

,

matter fr om the st orage cas k s .

British brandy is n o t prepared from wine spirit but -

,
44 A L C OH OL

by addin g a v ou rin g ingredients t o plain Spirit made from

grain or fr om other n on vinous materials
,
-
.

Gi n is typically a gr ain spirit which has been rectied

, , ,

and t hen av oured by distillati on with j uniper berries -

.

Ot her aromatic a v ou r in gs are often empl oyed in addi

ti on to the j uniper in gr edient the Chief of these are
angelica almonds calamus cardam oms cassia c o ri ander
, , , , , ,

fennel grains o f paradise liquorice and orris Some

, , ,
.

times the a v ou rin g materials are distilled separately

from the main bulk of the alc oh ol with a small quantity ,

of spirit and the pr oduct is mixed subse q uent l y wi th

,

the remainder of the recti ed spirit Sometimes . ,

too the product sold as gin is made by merely mixing

,

vari ous essential oils with o rdinary plain or patent

still spirit G in may be either sweetened or n u
.

sweetened T he sweetened varieties cont ain usually

.
"

from 2 t o 4 per cent of sugar or occasi on ally as much , ,

as 6 per cent .

R u m is a p otable spirit distilled from ferm ented cane

sugar m olasses and skimmings obt ained during the
puri cation of sugar J am aica rum i s produced by a.

pr ocess of Sl ow ferment ati on lastin g fr om ten t o twelve ,

days ; D emerara rum by qui c k fermentati on nished ,

within about t w o days I n the former case there is .

bacterial acti on as well as that due t o yeast whereas

in the quick process the ferment a t ion is due alm os t s olely
t o yeast .

L ike brandy rum is distilled in still s o f simple type

,

pot st ill s) or else in rectifying st ill s which st o p

,

sh ort of c omplete re cticati on I n either c ase the whole . ,

o f the secondary pr oducts is n o t elimin ated fro m

the spirit and t o the porti on that remains is due the
,

Characteristic av our o f the rum But whereas the .

avour of brandy is attributed mainly t o a pr oduct

termed oenanthic ester that of rum is due t o other ,
 FIG . 7

STEA M JA C ETED C OP P ER
K GI N ST I L L
46 A L C OHOL

esters chiey ethyl butyrate ethyl formate and ethyl

, , ,

acetate .

An articial or imitati on rum is made by

a v our in g and c ol ouring plain spi rit with art icial

essences .

Wh isky T his Spirit is made either from malt

.
,

or from a mixed mash of malt and u nmalted grain .

T he grain includes barley maize oats rye and wheat , , , ,

.

B oth pot stills and patent still s are employed for the
distillati on For S c otch pot still whisky malt al one
.
-

is generally used in I rish pot still distilleries a mixture -

o f malt and unmalted grain is the rule T he bul k of the .

whisky as sent int o c onsumpti on is the blended product

of p ot still and patent still distilleries T he patent
- -
.

still spirit is of a milder Character than that from the

pot still and the mixture appeals to the palate as well
, ,

as to the p ocket of the greater number of c onsumers

,
.

M any blends h owever are made of pot still whiskies

, ,
-

alone as these are n ot of uniform Character but differ

, ,

am ong themselves in respect o f avour and qual ity T he .

blend ing is for the purpose of obtain in g a particular

Character or quality and of keeping t his Character
,

as u niform as p ossible P urchasers of a special brand

.

of whisky natura l ly like to nd always the same avour

and character in that brand .

N ewly distilled whisky has a crude harsh avo u r

-

, ,

which is softened and mellowed by st oring the li qu or

in cas k s for a number o f years S herry casks are o ften .

used for this maturing process th ough the larger ,

proport ion of whisky is matured in plain wood As .

with brandy and ru m the speci al a vour of whisky is

,

due to the nature and amount of the sec ondary pr od uct s

which are allowed to remain in the liqu or when the
fermented wash is distilled I n S c otland it is a c ommon .
,

practice t o use peat in curi ng the malt used for ma king

48 AL C OH O
L

pot still whiskies with the result that cert ain kinds of
-

Sc otch whisky p o ssess a marked peaty avour For .

trade p u rp oses S c otch whiskies are Classied int o

( 1) H ighland malts ; (2) L owland malts ; (3) C amp
b e l t own s (4) I slays and (5) Grain whiskies T he last.

includes the patent still whiskies I rish self whis kies

-
.

are usually mark eted under the n ame of the distiller

or distillery ; but most of the b ottled whiskies are

blended products sold under the name of the blender

,

or under s o me fan c ifu l descrip t i on R y e whisky i s an

.

American beverage made with malted rye or with ,

unmalted rye and a small pr op ort i on of barley malt or

rye malt B ourb on whisky is made in Kentucky from
.

maize rye and barley malt the maize forming more than
, , ,

o n e hal f o f the tot a l grain

-
.

T he colour o f whisky is due t o extractive matters

derived fr om the st orage casks with s ometimes a little
,

added car a mel N ewly distilled whisky is colourless

.
-
.
 C H A P T ER V

I N DUS T R I A L A L C OH OL
M o sr c ountries tax alc ohol used as a beverage partly ,

as a means o f obtaining revenue and partly as a Check

upo n the indi scrimi nate use o f spiritu ous liquors But .
,

as we have already indi cated alc oh ol has a great m a ny

,

applications in the arts and man u factures ; and it is

o bviously desirable t o have no unnecessary increase in

the cost of the spiri t u sed for these industri al purposes .

On the other hand human nature being what it is

, ,

if pure alcohol were all owed in manufactures free o f

t ax and without restricti ons there wou ld very soon be a
considerable decrease in the revenue obtained from this
source to say noth ing of the m oral and physical
,

detri ment attend a nt up on increased illi cit dri n king .

S tringent regulati ons and close supervi sion wou ld no

doubt help to minimize these dangers but would u nduly ,

har n p er le git imate operations Also they would increase

.

t he cost of the manufactures in eff ect they woul d still

be a t ax though under an other name
, .

T he remedy is f a irly obvious M a ke the alcoh ol . ,

if possible so n asty that it cannot be drunk M ix

, .

with the Sp iri t if you can something which will render

, ,

it u npalatable or even nause ous but which will n ot ,

interfere wi th the industri al operati on or pur pose for

which it is required T hen let the manufacturer have
.

it free of duty an d with a minimum of res t rictions

,
.

T hat is the ideal treatment properly to denature

the alc ohol as the phrase goes But the selection of
, .

the ideal denaturan t is by n o means an easy matter .

M any substances wil l ma ke alc ohol too nauseous to

49
50 A L C OHOL

dri n k but that is n ot the wh ole st ory T hey may be

, .

too easily got rid of or they may be too costly or they

, ,

may interfere t oo much with the part icular purp o se

t o which the user wishes t o put the sp i rit I n vi ew .

of the multiplicity and the diverse Character of the

Operations in which alcoh o l is empl oyed a very little ,

consideration will Show that a denaturant which is

un obj ectionable in some industries may be quite un
suitable in others R esin for example might be of n o
.
, ,

detri ment in alcoh ol for varnish makin g but a ph oto

gr apher would obj ect strongly t o its presence in the
spiri t with which he dri es his plates or prep a res his
emul sions .

D enaturants T he following are the Chief c onditions

.

which a good denaturant Sh ould full

( 1) I t Sh ould impart a t aste and smell sufciently
di sagreeable to preven t the alcoh o l bein g drun k even ,

after di luti on sweetening or a v ou rin g

, , .

(2) I t Should not be capable of easy removal by

ltration distil l ation or an y other process which can
, ,

readily be applied or which is ordi narily used in

,

m anufacturing operati ons .

(3) I t should be capable of easy and cert ain detection ,

even when present in minute qu a ntities only .

( )
4 I t Should mix readily with the alc o h ol an d produce ,

a mixture capable of being used in essenti a lly the same

way as the un den a t u re d alcohol in manufacturin g
processes .

(5) I ts c ost shou ld not add materi ally to the pri ce

of denatured spiri t as compared with that of ordin ary
alcoh ol free of tax .

Whilst many substances full on e or more of these

c onditions no Single su bstance has yet been discover ed
,

which satisfactoril y f ull s them all T he one which .

approaches most nearly t o a perfec t den aturan t is crude

 I N DUS TR I A L AL C OHOL 51

methyl alc oh ol or wood naphtha (wo od spirit ) ,

rst introduced for the purpose by the revenue Chemists

o f this c ountry in 1855 I t is obtain ed as one of the
.

products result in g from the dry distillati on O f wood ,

and must be carefull y distingu ished from the ordin ary

ethyl al c oho l produced as described in Chapter I II , ,

by converting the cell u l o se of wood into ferment able

sugars and fermenting and distill ing these
, .

Oth er subst ances in use as partial den aturants include

mineral naphtha (a light pe troleum oil ) crude pyri dine ,

(obtai ned from coal tar ) turpentine c o al t ar oil s olvent

, , ,

naphth a acet one oil b one oil benz ol petr oleum dis
, , , ,

f ill a t e s of hi gher boiling p oint than miner al naphtha ,

and aniline oil These vari ous articles would seem to be

.

nauseous enough in all conscience : they suggest a

,

veritable witch s cauldron N evertheless it is a fact

.

that all of them are lac king in some respects and l a rge
m oney prizes have from time t o time been offered
and o ffered in vain for the disc o very of more perfect
denat u rants .

I n near ly all count ries t wo chief kinds of denatured

alcohol are sancti oned for general and industrial use
( )
1 C om p le te ly den a t ured
-
spirit intended for ,

use by the publi c for burn in g cleaning h ousehold , , ,

and minor m a nufacturing purposes .

(2) P a rt ly den a tu red al c oh ol for industrial opera

-

tions on a l a rge scale and for use generally where the

rst variety is unsuitable .

T he completely denatured alcoh ol for general

-

use i s c omm only mixed wi th a larger percentage of

wo od naphtha than is required in the par t ly denatured
- -

spiri t for m an ufact u ring purposes ; and it contains ,

in additi on a small quantity of some other subs t an ce

, ,

such as mineral oil or pyridine to in ten sify its n auseous ,

Character I t is al so often col oured wi th an anilin e dye

.
.
52 A L C OHO L

M eth y late d Sp irit I n this c ountry such alcohol

.

as that just described is kn own as mi n era lized me l by

l ate d sp i r i t
"
I t contains 90 parts (by vo lume ) o f
.

ordin ary plain spirit and 10 parts o f wood naphtha , ,

t ogether with t hree eighths o f on e per cent of mineral

-

naphtha and su i cien t dye t o gi ve it a violet tint

, .

P racticall y the same mi xture is used in F rance and in

the United S tates as W ell as in C anada and in other
,

British p ossessi ons .

M ineralized methylated spirit is the kind which is

ordin arily retailed for burn ing d omestic and general , ,

purposes I t may be o btained in quantities n o t ex

.

ce e din g 4 ga l l o ns at a time fr o m licensed ret ailers such

as oil merchants gr ocers and Chemists T his spirit

, , .

becomes milky on diluti o n wi th water and is so nause ous ,

as to be alm ost undrinkable ex c ept by persons o f ,

depraved t aste even wh en sweetened and avoured

, .

C ases o f such methylated spirit drin kin g h o wever , ,

a r e by no means un kn o wn especially in the po orer ,

quarters of our larger towns I t is illegal to puri fy .

this or any other kind o f methylated spiri t or t o prepare ,

it in any way for use as a beverage .

T he partly denatured -
al coh o l in general use in

this coun try for industrial pu rposes is known as i n du s

t ri a l me t hy l a te d sp i ri t I t Contains 95 part s (by vo lu me )
"
.

of ordin ary plain alc o hol and 5 parts of wo o d naphtha .

I t di ff ers therefore fro m the mineralized spirit in that

, ,

i t contains n o mineral naphtha and no anili ne dye ,

d in havin g one h al f the prop ort ion of wood naphth a

-
.

Such a mixture is obvi ously much purer th a n the

min eral iz ed kind I t is n o t undr inkable when diluted
.
,

sweetened or avoured an d hen ce greater preca utions

,

ha ve to be t aken by the revenue auth orities to prevent

its illegal use than are necessary in the case of min era liz ed
methylated spirit I t is not allowed t o be sold by ret a il
.
 I N DUSTRI A L A L C O HOL 53

a user must be Specically authorized t o receive it and ,

he must obtain it directly fr om the methylators
who make the spirit N o smaller quantity than 5
.

gallons can be supplied F ur ther except where the.

,

annu a l quantity re q uired is not more than 50 gall on s ,

the user must gi ve a bond for the proper employment of

the spirit whi c h may only be used fo r the purposes
,

auth orized under the bond T he principal restricti on.

upo n the purp oses t o which the industrial Spirit may be

put is that it may not be used in beverages or in perfu mes
or in medicines capable of being taken intern ally ;
n or may it be empl oyed as a fu el alc oh o l or for heating ,

and lighting For all ordinary manufacturing operations

.

h owever fr om the making o f furniture p olish t o the

,

dyeing o f art icial owers or the producti on of an

anaesthetic the receipt of industrial methylated spirit
,

is auth orized and its use a l l owed u nder c onditi ons of

,

supervision which are by n o means unreas onably

irks ome .

Sp e cial l y D enature d A lc oh ol F or certain industrial

.

operati ons methylated spirit whether mineralized or ,

industrial is n ot suitable T his may be due t o a variety

, .

of causes on e of the m ost frequent perhaps being

, , ,

the fact that the methyl alcoh ol of the wo o d naphtha

may enter int o Chemical reacti on and produce comp ou nds
di fferent from the particul ar product required In .

such cases ordinary alc oh ol may be allowed free of duty ,

but den atured with some den aturant appropri ate

t o the special o peration in questi o n Frequently this .

denaturan t will be on e of the in gredients o r Chemical

reagents used in the manufacture F or example in .
,

making the dyestu ff intermediate product ethyl
aniline the methyl a lcoh ol of wo od naphtha is
, ,

undesirable as a den aturant because it gives ri se t o ,

methylaniline ; but aniline oil it self the main raw

( 1466
,

5 P )
54 A L C OH OL

material is a very nause ous body and can be used (if so

, ,

authori zed ) instead of wood n aphtha to denature the

alc oh ol employed On the o ther hand a denaturan t
.

might be selected which has no necessary Connection

with t he manufacture but i s Chosen Simply because
,

i t renders the alcohol m ore or less unpotable and does ,

n ot seriously in terfere with the o perati o ns in view .

A s an example of this t h e foll owing United States

,

specicati on for a specially denatured al coh ol may be -

quoted I t is for spiri t t o be used in making sulph o

.

methane (sul ph onal a medicinal sop oric) T o every

10 0 gall ons of plain spirit are t o be added 1 gall on o f
pyri dine bases and 1 gall on of benz ol .

Speciall y denatured alcohol di ffers from methylated

-

spiri t in that the denaturing process is carried ou t on

the u ser s premises whereas the latter Spiri t is made in

bulk by specially licensed methylators wh o di stribute
-

it ready made to the prospective user I n gener al

-
.
,

as the special denaturants are less effective than wood

n aphtha for preventing possible malpractices the u se ,

of Specially den atured spiri t involves more o fci al

-

restrictions and supervision than are required with

methylat ed spi ri t .

Al c oh ol n ot D enatu re d I t may be menti oned t hat

. ,

for teaching and scientic research universities and other ,

pub l ic instituti ons are allowed t o receive alcoh ol (free

of duty ) without the addition of any denaturant .

Also pure methy l alc ohol which is liable t o spirit ,

duty when puri ed suf ciently to be regarded as potable ,

is allowed free of duty and without denat u rin g for the

, ,

manuf actur e of certain ne Chemicals in cases where ,

industrial methylated spirit i s unsuitable .

Summing up then we nd that in the United Kingd om

, ,

there ar e four vari eties of industri al alc ohol which may

be used free of t ax in appropriate Circumst ances T he .
 I N DU TR I A L S AL C O H OL 55

four kinds are ( 1) mineral i zed methylated spirit

(2) industrial met hylated spirit (3) Speciall y den atured -

alc oh ol ; and (4) al c oh o l not denatured and m ore ,

particularly methyl al cohol

, .

I n the Chief f oreign manufacturin g c ountries the

arran gem ents fo r usin g industri al al c ohol free of duty
run much on the same lines as in thi s country though ,

th e re are of course di fferences of detail

, , .

Uses of I n dustrial A lc oh o l Ap art from the use of .

alc oh ol as a fuel etc which is dealt with in the Chapter

, .
,

P o wer A lc o hol

on (p the Chief technical .

applicati ons of alc oh ol are ( 1) as a Solven t and (2) as ,

a raw materi al for c on versi on int o non alc oholi c -

products .

Water is the only substan ce which even appro aches

al c ohol in import an ce as a solvent For m any articles .
,

h owever water is val uel ess in this con nection and n o

, ,

general substitute for alcohol has yet been discovered ,

o r is li kely to be Much the S a me may be said as regards

.

the use of alcohol as a raw material H ere and there . ,

n o doubt a substitute i s available T hus chlor oform

, .

can be made from either al cohol or acetone but even

th ough an al tern ative is s ometimes possible the fact ,

remai n s that in gen eral alc ohol is the Cheapest and most
, ,

con venient material .

I n order to exemplify and gi ve precision t o these

general statements t ables are adduced showi n g the
,

purp oses t o which industri al alcohol is applied in the

three Chi ef European count ri es wi th the annual quan ,

tities empl oyed in pre war times From these t ables -

.

we wi ll select va ri ous typical items an d indicate more ,

par ticularly how or why the alc ohol is used in these

i nstan ces T he pre war data will convey perhaps a
.
-

better idea of nor mal c onsumption than recent return s

w ould Sh ow .
56 C OH O
AL L

T A B L E I II
I ND ST RIA L
U ET H Y L ATE D S P I RIT I N T H E
M UNITED K INGD O M
Y EAR 1 9 1314 Qu an ti ty i n
M a n uf a c t u re or ot her p u rp ose .
t hou sa n ds
f
o ga l l on s .

F ini sh for sale , 395 7 -

Va rni sh po li sh a n d l acq u er fo r sal

, , , 983 7
Stain s pai nts en ame ls e t c 67 5 -

Varnis h p o lis h e t c for u se in ma ker s

.
, , ,
'

w r ksho ps
.
, , ,

o 30 0 3 -

F elt a n d o ther hats 134 7 -

Cell u lo id xylon ite and similar s u bs tan ces

, , 28 8 -

Oil c l o ths le ather Cl o th s p e ga rn o id l in ole m

, , , u ,

et c 2 2 13
Smo kele ss po wders f u lmi n ates and o ther
.

m3
, ,

exp l osive s 0

So ap making
-
1m 7 0

Ele c tri c l amp l aments and ele c tri c C ables 1 0

2
I ncandescent mantles 1 0
2
Ether 19 0
1
C hl orofo rm 0
8
Ethyl c hl oride and bro mide 0
8
So lid medi c in al extrac ts 5 0
7
Al kal oid s a n d ne C hemi cal s 3 0
5
Embrocati o n s lini ments a n d l o ti o ns
, ,
0
1
S u rgi c al dr e ss m gs 10 0
0
Capsu les a n d other medical appli an ces 2 0
0
H air was he s 29 0
5
Cattle medi cines 2 0
5
P l ant w as he s i n s e c t i c ide s and S heep dips
, , 10 0
9
Aniline a n d o ther dye s so lid s , 0 0
2
A niline a n d o ther dyes so l u ti o n s 2 0
3
F irewo r ks a n d mat c he s
,

3 0
1
P h o t o gr aphi c pl ate s papers a nd o ther pho t o , ,

graphi c pu rp ose s 46 O

Steel pen s 3 O

Sil k c rape and embroidery

, , 8 O

Arti ci al owers e t c , . 5 O

R u bber 0 O

A rti ci al Sil k 0 O

Shi ps compass es spirit levels e t c

'
1 O

I n ks
.
, ,

0 O

Co llodi o n 8 O

D isi nfecta nts 2 O

H op extrac t l9 O

Dyeing a n d Clean ing o perations 42 O

Ca r i ed f
r o rward
 I N DUS TR I A L AL C O HOL 57

T AB L E I I I
I ND U STRIA L M ETH Y L ATED S P I RIT I N T H E UNITED KI NGD O M
Y EAR 19 13l 4 (C on t i n u ed)
Q u a n t i ty i n
M u r e or ot he r p urp ose h u sa n ds
an u f a c t t o .

f
o ga l lon s .

Brou ght forward

T ext ile pri nting 8 4
-

P rese rving Spe cimen s in m u se u m s a n d h o s pital s 66

Ed u cati o n al and scienti c pu rposes in co llege s
and s chool s 58
An alyti cal a n d Scienti c p u rpo ses in l aborato ries
o f a n alyst s w or ks Chemi st s e t c
, ,
. 57
H ospitals as yl u ms a n d i n rma r i e s
, , 51 2
-

Ele ctro typing a n d printing l l

-

Used i n d oc ky ard s and a rs en al s c hie y for ,

varnis h and poli sh 14 9

M i sc ell aneo u s p u rpo se s 10

T o tal in th ou sand s
, of gall on s -
6

T h at i t o ta l n u mber of gall on s u sed w a s 2

s, t he

T AB L E I V
I ND USTRIA L A L CO H OL T Ax FREE I N FRANCE Y EAR 19 13 , , .

Q u a n t i ty i n
M a n uf a ct u re or ot he r u se t hou sa n ds
.

f
o ga l l on s .

Varni shes 36 3 9
-

T hin ning p u rp oses 22 4-

P l as ti c m ate ri al s (c ell u l oid e t c ) 395 3-

H a t ma king
.
,

22 3-

Dy es and colo u rs 18 2-

L i q u id rennet 4 3-

Collo di on 19 1-

Arti ci al sil k 6 5-

C hl orofo rm 11 7-

C hl oral 19
Vari ou s pro d u ct s (al kal oid s e x trac t s tran s , ,

parent soap e t c ) , . 10 4 0
-

Scienti c p u rp ose s 7 3
-

Ether f u lmi n ates and e x pl osive s

, , 6
-

T o t al in th ou sand s of gall on s
,
-
5

I n this case the quantities are expressed in terms

of pure ( 10 0 per cent ) alc oh ol of which the total amoun t ,
58 AL C O H OL

u sed was imperial gallons T he t able is n o t .

quite comparable with the one preceding i n asmuch ,

as the l ast item by far the largest includes explosives

, , ,

for ma king which in the Uni ted Kingdom specially

den atured alcoh o l is chiey employed .

Besides the foregoing more than , gall ons

of denatu red alcohol were empl oyed in Fran ce for
heating and lighting purposes during the year in question .

I n this country mineral i zed methylated spiri t is u sed

,

for these and o t her purp oses but the quantity is very ,

much lesso nly ab out gal lons yea rly in fact , .

T AB L E V
P ART L Y DENAT U RED I ND U STRIA L AL C O H O L U SED I N G ERMANY
-

Y EAR 19 1

Q u a n t i ty i n
M a n uf a ct re u . t hou sa n ds
Wg WM L
Vinegar ma king
I ndu strial acetic ac id me
Brewers gl aze
m 9 o

Fini sh ing of ru bber good s m

Cellu l oid and pegamo id oN w
Syntheti c c amph o r wa
E t her \ a u
I t

P ho to gr aphi c lms p apers a nd pl ates Aa b

Hm m
, ,

A ceti c ether
Co al tar col ou rs a n d b y prod u c ts
- -
w
Sol u tio n s of coal t a r col ou rs for dye pri nting
- -

L igatu re s o
C hlorofo rm o
I odo form m
Ethyl bro mi de a n d bro mof orm m
L a c dye s D m
L ac q u ers o f a ll kind s (ex cl u sive o f l a c dye s a n d
(

brewers gl aze )

70 e 1 -

S cienti c prepara ti o ns for teaching p u rpose s n0 -

So lid so aps 5 5 o
c
-

W 0 0 1 fa ts a n d Oi ls 16 7
O ther p u rpose s in c l u ding a n u mber en u merated
,

in regu l at i o n s q u o ted 57 1 5 -

T o t al in tho u sand s
, of gall o n s 10 0 % al coh ol -
1
 I N DUSTR I A L A L C OHO L 59

Here again it will be noticed that t he total quantity ,

gall ons is very much larger than the t otal

,

sh own for t his c ountry in T able II I or for F rance in ,

T able I V .By far the largest item h o wever is t he , ,

r st on t h e list which Sh ows m ore than

, gall ons
of alc oh ol as used for making vinegar I n t his c ountry .

very littl e alc oh ol is empl oyed directly in this industry ,

as v inegar is made here almost entirely fr om malt

and other materi als mashed expressly for the purp ose .

When the quantity in question is deducted fr om the

G erman t ot a l a very di fferent c omplexi on is put upon
-
,

the relative gures .

M aking n ow a selecti on of typical items from T able I I I ,

we will proceed t o Sh ow h ow the alcohol is applied in

these manufactures .

F i n i sh T his is a soluti on of resin (c o lophony )
.
,

shellac or other gum resins in alc ohol and is used by

,
-

fu m it u r e polishers for nishing off or sp iriting
o ff their work I t must legally when made from
.
,

methylated spirit contain in actual s olution at least

,

3 oz o f resin or gum resi n per ga l l on

. Sufcient of t he
-
.

resinous materials must therefore be used t o ensu re

that this prop ortion is diss olved after allowing for ,

ins oluble matters c ontain ed in the materi als Finish .

di ffers from spirit varnish and polish in containin g

a much larger pr op o rtio n o f alc oh ol T he functi on .

o f the alc o h o l is to diss o lve the resin ous substances .

V a rn i sh P ol i sh a n d L acq ue r
,
T hese are also in the
, .
,

main s oluti ons of resin ous material s in alc ohol T he

,
.

chief resins or gu ms employed are ordin ary resin

( c ol o phony ) Sandarac
, c o pal dammar elemi benz o in
, , , , ,

Shellac and acaroid resins T he proporti ons of these .

vary considerably rangi ng generally from 2 to 6 lbs,

.

per gall on T he three articles differ amongst themselves

.

in the kinds of resins used and in the pr oporti ons ; ,

60 A L C OH OL

broadly speaking it may be said that varnishes usually ,

cont ain more resin ous matter than polishes whilst a ,

ty pica l lacquer such as is used for brass work h as , ,

shellac as its resinous basis and includes colouring

matt e rs like tu rm eric and saffron A s an example .

o f a sp i ri t v a rn i sh the fo ll owi ng recipe may be gi ven

S hell ac 34 oz sa ndarac resin 4 oz yell ow resin 5 oz

.
, . .
,

spiri t 1 gall on A formu la for F renc h p ol i sh isShell ac

,

32 oz benzoin 1 oz sa nd arac 2 oz spi ri t 1 gallon ;

.
, .
, .
,

an d a recipe for brass l acq uer c ontains Shellac 30 oz .

,

tu rm eric 10 oz annatto 2 ; oz saffron 2 ; oz and spi ri t

.
, .
, .
,

1 gall on I n makin g the l ast art icle the tu rm eric

.
,

ann att o and saffr on are rst extracted with the alc ohol
, ,

an d ltered an d the Shellac dissolved in the l trate

, .

T he solution is all owed to settle and strained or ltered ,

for use .

S ta i n s P a i n ts a n d En a me l s
, Al c ohol is used in these
, .

for dissolving dyes an d other c olours as well as any ,

resin ous in gredi ents which may be present An .

oa k sta i n for example is made by dissolving

, Bismarck ,

brown 2 oz V andyke br own 4 oz N igrosin dye 4 oz

.
, .
,
.
,

i n Spirit 1 gall on A y el l ow st a i n is prepared by dissol v

, .

in g 12 oz of ga mb oge in a gall on of spirit all owing

.
,

the soluti on t o Settle and strainin g off the clear ,

li quid .

F el t H a ts I n the manufacture of these a kind of

.

spirit varnish is used as a sti ffener for the felt .

A lcoh ol is employed to make this varnish a n d also t o ,

dissolve the c ol ou rin g matters used .

Cell u l oi d Xy lon i te etc

,
T hese su bstan ces have as , .

basic ingr edients cell u lose nitrates or acet ates mixed

with camph or and various llings an d colou rin gs .

A lcohol is employed wit h amyl acet ate toluene an d , , ,

o ther liquids as a solvent to in corporate the materi als

,

and bring them int o a plastic workable Conditi on ,

.
 I N DUSTR I A L A L C O H OL 61

P ow ders , F ulminate
ther Ex p l osives I n these
s , an d o .

industries alc oh ol is used bo th as a s olven t and as a

raw m aterial M ixed with ether (itself produced from
.

alcohol ) it dissolves nitrocellulose (gun c ott on ) em

, ,

pl oyed in l arge q uantities for making smokeless p owders .

I t was used on a large scale during the war for purifying

tri nitrot oluene by crystall ization T he .

crude T N T is diss olved in warm alcoh ol and all owed

. . .
,

t o c ool when i t cryst a llizes out leavi ng impurities in

, ,

solution T his process i s typical of a gr eat many in

.

which alc oh ol is used for the puricati on of crude

products in order t o rene them and render them
,

m arket able .

F or fulm inates al c oh ol serves as the basic material

, ,

not as a s olvent I t is destr oyed in the process of

.

manufacture and no l onger exists as alc oh ol in the

,

n ished article but it supplies s ome of its c omponents ,

carb on and oxygen t o form an expl osive combinati on

,

with the met allic ingredient in the completed fu lrn in a t e .

M ercury is dissolved in ni tric acid and alcohol in the ,

re quisite proportion is mixed with the s olution A Chem .

i c al reacti on set s in between the alcohol and the other

ingredi ents with the resul t that mercury fu lrn in a t e i s
,

formed and separates out in akes which are su b se

, ,

quently puried by washing I t i s much used as a .

det on ator for ring Charges of explosives .

I n this connection it ma y be mentioned that durin g

the gre at war very large quantities of alcoh ol were
empl oyed as the raw material for making must ard

gas
. T he alcoh ol was converted into ethylene gas ,

and thi s passed in to sulphur m onochloride produced the

, ,

poison gas in question

-
.

Soap M akin g I n preparing the so called

. trans -

parent or translucent soaps alcohol is empl oyed as a ,

Clarifyin g agent D ried soap is diss olved in the spirit

.
,
62 A L C O HOL

separated from ins oluble impurities and most of the ,

al coh o l distilled o ff T he residual m ass is formed into

.

bars or ca kes and st ored at the ordinary temperature ,

when the remain ing alcoh o l slowly evaporates and

leaves a transparent so ap .

I n ca n descen t M a n e s These are Coated with c ollo

.

dion as otherwise they would be t oo fragile for transp ort

, .

T he c oll odion is made by dissolving gu n cotton in a

mixture of alc oh ol and ether I n gre dients for increasing .

the brilli ancy o f the light are incorporated with the

c ollodi on an d ar e left on the laments when the collodi on
,

is bu rnt away pri or to the mantle being used .

Ether . L arge qu a ntities of t his import ant product

are made alcohol being the raw materi al A mixture
, .

of alcohol (5 parts ) with strong sulphuric acid (9 part s )

is heated in a still t o a temperatu re of l 30 140 C
.

( 266
284

T he acid reacts chemically with the
alcohol producing ether which distils o ver and is
, ,

subsequently puried T he process is made c ontinuous

.

by runnin g a reg ulated stream o f alcohol into the

heated mixtu re as fast as t he ether di stils away Ether .

is used in large quantities as an an aesthetic as a solvent , ,

and in ice ma king apparatus

-
.

Chlorofor m L ike ether this is largely used as an

.
,

anaesthetic and as a s olvent I t is made by disti l ling .

alcohol with bleaching p owder or by rst passing ,

chlorine gas int o alcohol and distill ing the product with
bleac hi ng p owder A cet one can be used instead o f
.

alcoh ol the Ch o ice at any particular t ime depending

, ,

up on which of the two materi al s is the Cheaper in

rel ation t o the yield of Chl or o form obt ained .

Et hy l C hl ori de a n d Et hy l B romi de T hese a re made .

by distilling alcoh ol with respectively hy dr ochl ori c, ,

acid and a mixture of s odium br omide and sulphu ric

acid T hey are employed as anaesthetics and t he
.
,
 I N DUSTR I A L A L C OHO L 63

Chloride is a lso used tec hnically in the making o f certain

dyestu ffs an d other Chemical products .

S ol i d M edic i n a l Ex tr ac ts Medicin al plants such as .

,

ac onite al oes belladonna Colchicum digitalis ergot

, , , , , ,

gentian henb a ne ipecacuanha and so on yield their

, , , ,

active prin ciples t o alcohol when treated with this

s olvent and a large number of spiritu ous extract s and
,

tinctures o f such dru gs are used in me dicine T he roots .

,

barks leaves or other parts of the plants suitably

, , ,

crushed or cut up are macerated with al c ohol of appro

,

p ria t e strength or percolated with it and the res u ltin g

, ,

extract uti lized in a liquid or solid form for compounding

prescriptions ma ki ng lin iments and so on
, , .

Spiri tuous medicines for intern al use cann ot legally

contain methylated spirit ; they must be made with
pure and t herefore duty paid alcoh ol (see C hapter I V
,
-

, ,

I mmatu re Sp irit ) But since there is an appreciable

.

l oss of this expen sive Spiri t in the various operations of

ext raction ltrati o n and evaporati on requi red in pre
, ,

paring the extracts manufacturers are a llowed to use ,

the Cheaper indust rial methylated spirit for these pre

li minary operations T he spirit is then distilled com .

p l e t e l y away (an d rec o vered for r e use ) leavi n g behind

-

the solid or semi solid extract which can n ow be -

re disso lved
-
in pure alcoh ol t o make the nished
product L oss of the m ore expensive duty paid spirit
.
-

is thus avoided .

A l ka lo i ds a n d F i n e C he mica ls T he alc oh ol in these .

inst a nces is chiey used in purifying the products ,

gener a ll y by crystall ization fr om a s olution of the sub

stance in spirit more or less diluted with water I t is .

also empl oyed for extractin g alk aloids from the p ar ent
plants and in maki ng synthetic drugs such as phen acetin
,

and antipyri n as well as ph o togr aphic chemicals and

,

laborat ory re agents -

.
64 A L C OH OL

E mbroca t i on s a nd L i n i men t s
Here t h e alc oh ol i s .

used t o dissolve the organic d rug or Chemical which is

usually the active ingr edient Such drugs are for .
,

example ac onite be llad onn a capsicum Opium camphor

, , , , ,

chl oroform and iodine , .

S u rgic a l D ress i n gs These include such art icles as

.

i odoform gauze and capsicum wool T he gauze or w ool .

is impregn at ed with a soluti on of the active drug

(iod o form capsicu m ) in alcoh ol and the so lvent
, ,

evaporated o .

Hair W ashes Vari ous med icaments oils an d

.
,

perfumes are present in these for which alcohol serves ,

as a so lvent I n so Call ed dry Sham p oo washes the

.
-

Spirit fulls also the further purp ose o f assisting the

drying o f the wash after applicati on S ince it evaporates ,

m ore readily than water d oes I n non separable .

-

brill iantin es the oil empl oyed i s cast or oil which dissolves ,

in alcoh o l I n the . separable varieties the oily

basis is either a mineral oil or a x ed vegetable Oil ,

such as alm ond or Olive oil nether o f which is appreciably ,

dissolved by alcoh ol but even in these Cases a small

quantity of spirit is used to thin the pr oduct and to
serve as a vehicle for the perfu mes and colourin gs
empl oyed A well known preparati on is S ir Erasmus
.
-

Wilson s hair loti on one recipe for which is as follows

Oil of almonds 2 oz stron g soluti on of ammoni a

, .
,

2 0 z ; honey water 4
. Oil o f rosemary l oz ;
, ,
.

rect ied spirit 10 oz An ex am ple o f a Bay R um

, .

l oti on IS Oll of bay 10 drachms ; oil of p irn en t o

J
, ,

1 dr achm extract of quassia 1 oz Sapon in 2 drachms ; ,

.
,

acetic ether 2 oz spirit 3 gall ons ; water 2 gallons

, .
, ,
.

T he Spirit may or may n ot c ont ain a proport ion of rum ,

at the ma ker s di screti on I t is used for dissolvin g the

.

o il s and the acetic ether whilst the quassia ext ract ,

is dissolved in the water the t w o so lutions being then ,

 I N DUS TR I AL A L C O H O L 65

mixed the sap onin added a n d the mixture allowed

, ,

to stand fo r a week or t w o I t is then ltered for .

use.

A n i l i ne Dy es S ol i ds

I n ma kin g vari ous inter
, .

mediate product s for these al c o h ol serves as the raw ,

ma teri a l T he principal articles a re compou nds formed

.

by c ombinati ons o f aniline with methyl alc ohol o r ethyl

a lc oh ol n amely m on ome t hyl a n ilin e dimethylaniline
, , ,

die t h y l a n il i n e and ethyl b e n zy l a n ilin e

,
T he inter .

mediates themselves are subse quently c ombined with

o ther Chemical substances t o pr oduce the nished
dyestu ffs such as methyl vi olet brilliant green ethyl
, , ,

pu rple a n d so on
, .

P hotogr a phic P l a te s e tc T he ph otographer uses,

.

alc o h ol for making the gelatine or c oll odi on emu lsions

with which plates or papers are coated and also for the ,

rapid drying of plates and papers .

S teel P en s Here the alc ohol is employed for making

.

the varnish or lacquer i n which the pens are dippe d .

A r t ic i a l F l owers T hese are c oloured with spirit

.

dyes and the al c oh ol is used as a s olvent for the dye

,
.

A rt ici a l S i l k T he basis of this is a nitr o cellul o se

.
-

or acetyl cellul ose which is disso lved in a mixture o f

-

alc ohol (2 v olumes ) and ether (3 volumes ) forming a ,

kind of c o llodion T he soluti on is forced through a

.

series of tubes eventually emerging in the form of

,

thin l aments which rapidly dry and are spun t ogether

, ,

to make the Silk thread .

S hip s Comp as ses

T he alc oh ol is used either alone
.
,

o r mixed with water o r glycerin as required t o form a ,

n on freezing liquid of suitable specic gravity in which

-

the c ompass is oated .

Dy ei n g a n d Cle a n i n g I n dyeing and textile printing . ,

alc oh ol is employed as a so lvent for the dye or c olour

used I n cleaning fabrics it and other solvents as
.
, ,
66 AL C OHOL

the may require are empl oyed for removi n g

,

grease Spots fr u it st ains an d other di scol orations

-
,
-

, .

Without further labourin g the point the foregoing

,

examples will serve to Show how man y and various

ar e the uses to which industri al alcohol is put in sub

se rvin g the every day requirement s of modern industry

-
.
 C H A P T ER VI
PO WER AL C O HO L

IN the year 19 19 we imported into the United Kin gd om

s ome gallons of petr ol the bul k of which
,

was used for dri ving mot or vehicles T he consumpti on

.

o f petrol for this purpose has been steadily increasing .

A decade or SO ago it was about gallons ;

by 1 9 15 it h ad risen t o gallons ; it was
in 19 18 ; and i t is now ( 1920 ) upwards
of gall ons ,

Much the same st ory is t old in other co untries W ith .

the development of m otor transport the demand for

m ot or Spirit increases from year t o year
-
.

M eanwhile the s ources of crude petr oleum from which ,

petrol is distilled are gradually being depleted so that

, ,

it bec omes more an d m ore di f cult to meet the demand .

A ppr oximately three fourths of the world s supplies

-

of crude petroleum are c ont ributed by the United

S tates T he G e ol ogical Survey of that country after
.
,

careful ly reviewing the p osition concludes that the

,

maximum output will be reached very Shortly in fact ,

wi t hin two or three years and thenceforward there

wi ll be a gradual decline A ccording to an ofci al
'

estimate made a few years ago the older Ameri can

,

O ile l ds will bec ome exhausted in about thirt y ye ar s

ti me.

N aturally this estimate will need some revisi on if

,

an y import an t new eld should be discovered ; but

with thi s reservation the outlo ok appears to be fairly
,

in di cated in the foregoing paragr aphs .

67
68 AL C O H OL

I n these Circumstances and in view of the great ,

import ance o f mot or transp ort it is not surprising t hat ,

attention sh ould have been dra wn t o the p ossibility

o f using alc o h o l as a m o t o r fuel I n d o ing this there .

woul d be on e very n o table advantage Vegetable raw .

materials for making alc oh ol can be grown in widely

di fferent climates fr om temperate t o tropical and
, ,

t he supp li es cou ld be c on sta n t ly re ne we d T here w ould .

be n o questi on of the sources bec oming e x haus t ed ,

as is the case with petr o leum S tarch bearing plan ts .

-

li k e maize cassava arrowr oo t an d pot at oes can b e

, , ,

grown wherever suitable l and and the re q uisite lab our

t o till it are available T heir energy o f gr o wth is
.

drawn fr om the sun and wit h sunshine ever recurring

as the seasons roll these and oth er suitable cro ps can be
,

obtained as l ong as i t is worth anyone s while t o raise

and garner them With the price of petrol Soar ing as

.

the demand outstrips the supply i t probably wi ll be ,

m ore and m ore w orth while t o grow starch crops and

sugar crops in excess o f food requirements in order t o
meet the demand for alc ohol as a m otor fuel .

For the dri vin g o f m ot or engines alcoh o l is applied ,

in a mann er quite Similar t o that in whi ch petrol is used .

I ts vapour mixed with a due prop orti o n of air is drawn

, ,

into the cylind er of the engine where it is r st c ompressed ,

and then ignited T he expl osive combusti on which

.

results generates heated gases T he pressu re o f these .

propels the piston and so works the engine

, .

Alcoh ol is n ot so volatile as petrol ; it does not so

readily give off vap our T his is a disadvantage in con
.

n e ct i on with its use as a m o t o r fuel since it makes the ,

engi ne m ore dii cu l t t o start especi a l ly in cold weather

,
.

Unless the fuel in the cylinder has a vapour tensi o n

greater than a certain limit the mixture of a ir and ,

vap our d oes n o t explode Hence it is easier t o st art

.
 P OW ER AL C OHOL 69

the engi ne with petro l than with al c oh ol because the ,

former is the m ore volatile it gives o ff m ore vap our

at any part icu lar temperature The difculty is .

o bvi ated when using alc oh ol by pre heating the car

, ,
-

b ur e t t or with a t orch or by mixin g a volatile subst ance

such as ether or petrol with the alc ohol ; or else by

employing petrol or benz ol a s a starter fr om co ld
,
"

and turning on the alc oh ol when the cylinder has become

warmed up .

An O i ci a l Committee which examined the question

o f using alcohol in petr ol engines reported as f ol l ows :

When alc oh ol is used in an ordin ary petr ol engi ne

the c onsumpti on of fuel per bra k e h orse p ower is ab out
50 per cen t greater than in the case of petrol I t appears .
,

h owever that the consumpti on of alc oh ol in a sp ec i ally

,

de sign ed a l cohol en gi n e wi ll not exceed the c onsum ption

of petr ol in a petr ol engi ne .

The main alterations necessar y in the ordin ary

design of petrol en gin es in order to t them t o work
e i cie n t l y on alcohol are as f o llow viz (a ) an increased , .
,

c ompressi on from about 75 lb per square inch which .

,

is t h e average for petrol en gines to ab out 180 lb per , .

sq in bo t h above atmospheric pressure : (b) a pre

. .
, ,

hea t in g of either the fuel or the air or of the mixture ,

o f fuel and ai r and (c) an in crease in t h e area of the

,

fuel j ets and f uel supply pipes .

AS a fact a go od deal of al coh ol has actually been

,

used as motor fuel N o doubt much remains to be .

said and done bef ore the perfect alcohol engine is

evolved but the matter has passed out of the purely
experimental stage I n general the alcohol is mixed
.

with other l iquid fu els of which the principal are benzol

, ,

petrol an d ether though others such as acet one

, , , ,

k erosen e and fusel oil alc oh ols have a lso been advocated
, ,
.

Equal parts of alcohol and benzol o r alcohol (2 par t s ) ,

6 ( 1466 P )
7O A L COHOL

ben z ol ( 1 part ) and ether ( 1 part ) have gi ven good

, ,

resul ts on the C ontinen t ; whilst in South A frica a

mixt u re termed n a t al it e containing ab ou t 40 per cen t
,

o f ether t o 60 o f alc oh ol has been used and a mixed

,

fu el composed of al c ohol ether and ben z ol is being , ,

empl oyed experimentally in the United S tates p o stal

aer oplane service I n the last menti oned case the tests
.

have Shown that there was much less carbon deposit

with alc oh o l than with petrol so that the engine cylinders ,

and the spar king plugs were k ept cleaner and forced
-

land ings due to fouled plugs were reduced t o a minimum .

Fu rther the consumpti on of lubricating oi l was n otably

,

less than when petrol was used and there was a m arked ,

increase in the number of m iles own per gall on of fuel

burn ed For a ight of given distance and altitude
.
,

only ab out four ft hs as much alcohol fuel was required

-

as c ompared wi th petr ol .

T he followi ng c omparative results showing for , ,

motor vehicles the dist ance travelled per litre of fuel

,

used were published on the C ont inent in 19 17

,

K l omet es
i r
F u el . r
t a v elle d .

Al coh ol al one 54 -

P etro l
I

U8 -

Benzo l Q l -

Al c ohol a iid benz ol ;e q u al parts

i

Q5 -

Al cohol 3 parts ; benzol 1 part ,

I

\ 0 -

Anearli er series of tests made in this c ou ntry to ,

c ompare the relative am ount of power obtained a n d

volume of fuel used may also be qu oted T he fuels
,
.

tested were petrol benzol and mixt u res of be nzol with

, ,

mi nerali zed methylated sp iri t T he experiments were .

made with a four cylinder engi n e running at

-

revoluti ons per minute P etr ol (spec ic gravi ty 0 7 10 )

.

was taken as the st andard and the results obtained ,

 PO WER AL C OHOL 71

with the o ther fuels were c ompared with those gi ven

by petrol reckoned as 10 0 T he c ompariso n is sh o wn .

below .

Fu el tested Po wer Vol u me o f

o btained f u el u sed
.

. .

( 1) P etrol 10 0 10 0
(2 ) Benz ol 98 2 -
84 5
-

(3) M ethyl ated S piri t 1 part benzo l

,
1
pa rt 99 96 3
-

(4 ) M ethyl ated spi ri t 2 , ben zol l 92 10 8 9

-

91 5 -
1 24 5
-

I f we c ompare the results given by the three mixtures

of methylated spirit and benz ol we see that N o 3 ,
.
,

c onsisting of equ al part s of spirit and benzol is a much ,

better fuel than either of the other t w o Mi xtures .

such as the ab ove where the al c ohol is mixed with benz ol

,

o r other liquid hydr o carb ons are often referred t o as ,

c ar buretted alcoh ol .

As regards mixtures of alcohol with liquid hydro

carbons such as petrol or kerosene it is i mport ant to ,

n ote that they sh ould be h om ogeneous mixt ures if they ,

are t o be used as liquid fuels T hey must not be mix .

tures which would settle out into two or m ore layers

on standing either in the c ourse of ordinary usage or
,

when exp osed to unusually l ow temperatures as during ,

hard fr osty weather I f such a separation into layers

.

o ccu rr e d i t would mean di fcul t or even impracticable

k
working since there would be two or m ore di fferent
,

kinds of fuel for the carburettor t o deal with a li ght

kin d at on e peri od of a run and a heavier kind at an other
,

period I n this c onnecti on the fo ll owing facts may be

.

menti oned
( 1) T he solubility of a hydr ocarb on fuel in al coh ol
is greater the lighter the hydrocarbon is P etr ol for .
,

instance is m ore s oluble than kerosene

, .
72 AL C OHOL

(2) T he s olubility is c onsiderably affected by the

presence of water T hat is it depends up on the strengt h
.
,

o f the alc oh o l
.

T hus at the freezing p oint of water (0 C or 32

.

absolute a lcoh ol and the liquid hydrocarbon hept ane

are miscible with on e another in all proport i ons With .

9 5 per cent alcohol complete miscibility is only obt ai ned

,

when there is not more than ab out 30 per cent of heptane

present whi lst with 90 per cent alc oh ol the prop ortion
o f heptane must n o t exceed 1 1 per cent .

B oth petr ol and kerosene are only s oluble in alc oh ol

to a relatively small ext ent H ence no large pr o po rt i on
.

of eith er can be employed in mixture with alcoh ol al one ,

if separati on is to be avoided .

T his di i cul t y may be o vercome by adding t o the ,

mixture a certain prop ortion of some t hird fuel Such ,

as benz ol or ether which wi ll dissolve b oth o f the

,

other c o n stituents . The quantity of benzol (or ether )

added should be suf cient to maint ain the mixture
of fuels completely h om ogeneous under all Con
dit ion s of temperature in which it is likely t o be
used .

Here again the strengt h of the alcohol is of impor

t ance T he l ower this strength is the greater wi ll be
.
,

the pr oporti on of benzol which must be added t o a

given m ixture (say petr ol and alcoh ol ) in order t o
obtain a hom o gene ous li quid T his is wel l shown by the
.

foll o wing resul ts of a seri es of experiments made for the

purp ose of testing the p oint in questi on .

M ixtures of alc oh o l and petr o l were made c ontaining ,

t wo}p a rt s of the former t o on e part of the latter by ,

volume T he stren gth of the alcoh ol varied from 95

.

per cent d own to 90 per cent in the v a ri ous mixtures .

Usin g 10 0 volumes of mixture the qu a ntity of benz ol,

required t o be added in order to produce a h omogeneous

,
 P OW ER AL C OHO L 73

li quid was determined for each strength

,
of alc oh o l .

T he results may be sh own thus

T E M P E R A T UR E 0
C

g
.

V ol u me of b en zol

mg
S tren t h of n ecessa r y pto ro
hol (by vol u me ) duce a ho o eneous

p er ce n t . n u rt u re .

95 12
94 19
93 27
92 35
91 65
90

Hence for such mixtures of li quid fuels it is desirable

t o use al c oh ol at as high a strength as is practicable .

N inety per cent alcoh ol woul d not serve with the par
t icu l a r mixture described abo ve ; the nearer 95 it is ,

the better the result .

A good method of raising the strengt h of 90 per cent

al c oh o l is to distil it o ver cal c ium carbide .

I t sh oul d perhaps be menti oned that petr ol varies

in quality and the gur es gi ven above w ould pr obably
,

n ot apply strictly t o all qualities T hey will h owever .

, ,

indi cate broadly the kind of resu lts to be expected with

alcoh ol petro l benzol mixtu res generally
- -
.

Fol lowing are s ome thermal and other parti culars

of mineralized methylated spirit (J S S Brame F u el ) . . .
,
.

Spe ci c gra vity 0 8 20 t o 0 827 -

P er c en tage co mpo siti o n Carbon 50 7 H ydrogen ,

-
,

13 0 O xygen 36 3 - -

Ca l o ri c v al u e Britis h T herm al Uni ts

.
,

P e r 1h gro ss v al u e
.
,

P e r 1h net v al u e.
,

Air req u ired for co mb s ti o n theoreti ca l q u an t i ty u , ,

per gal l on 930 c ft at 6 0 F , u . .

.

T his mineralized methylated spirit is at the time o f ,

writing t h e only kind of duty

,
free alcoh ol which can
legally be used for fuel purp oses in the United Kingd om ,

N
o h m g
o mi t
o en eous p iblx ure os s e.
74 AL C O H OL

I t c ontai ns h owever a relatively large proportion

, ,

( 10 per cent ) o f wood naphtha as princip al denaturant

( see C hapter V ) and this

,
is a rather expensive ingredient .

Hence statut ory p owers have been obtained by the

auth orities t o m odify the c omp osition and pr oporti ons
of the denaturants so that a , p ower methylated
spirit may be produced in which cheaper denaturing
ingredients will part ly replace the relatively scarce and
rather c ostly wood naphtha Up t o the present these .

mod icati ons have n ot been ann ounced but there is n o ,

reaso n t o d oubt that a power alc oh o l with less expensive

denaturants will in due c ourse be auth ori zed for use in
this c ountry " Alc ohol for power purposes sh oul d
.

obvi ously be as Cheap as p ossible .

I t is n ot very likely that the quantity o f alc oh o l

necessary t o make us independent of petrol or even t o ,

repl ac e it in any substantial degree will be produced ,

from material s grown in this c ountry T he c ost would .

pr obably be t oo high We have insuffi cient acreage

.

avail able the c ost of cultivati on harvesting and m a nu , ,

facture is t oo great and the most suitable materi a ls

are also imp ort ant fo odstu ffs from which n o considerable ,

amounts c ould be spared for the pu rpose Barley .

,

potat oes and mangolds are the types of vege t able

,

products suitable for making alc oh ol which we c ould

, ,

gr ow here I t has been calculated that to obtain the

.
,

gall ons of alcoh ol which would roughl y , ,

be equivalent to our annual consumpti on of petrol ,

W e sh ould need more than t ons of barley or ,

tons of p otat oes or tons of

,

mangolds But the t otal annual pr oducti on of potatoes

.

A f orm u l a for p ower methyl ated s pirit h a s n o w been

au th orized T o 10 0 vol u mes of 9 5 per cent al coho l are added
.

2 ; v ol u mes o f w oo d n aphth a vol u me o f c ru de pyridine n o t

, ,

less than 5 v ol u mes o f benz ol a n d s u f cient dye t o give the

mixt u re a pin k tint
,

.
 PO WER AL C OHO L 75

in the United Kin gd om is only o n e half and o f the o ther -

t w o materials barely o n e third of these quantities -

, .

T he barley we produce is already largely used in the

making of malt the p otat oes and mangolds are food
stuffs Since this c ountry is very far fr om being self
.

suppo rting in the matter of food n o c onsiderable ,

propo rti on o f these cro ps c ould be diverted to increase

the producti on of alc oh ol T hey c ommand a much .

higher price as foodstuffs than could be paid for them

as sources of po wer alc ohol .

I n tropical and sub tropical c ountries W here land is

-

plentiful labou r Cheap and sunshine abundant it may

, , ,

be quite practicable t o gr ow vegetable subst ances like

cassava arr owr oot and maize at such a c ost as will
, ,

make them very imp ort ant sources of power alcoh ol ,

M aize has indeed been much used for this purpose

, ,

in the past but at present its price precludes its empl oy

,

ment on a large scale S till there are regions as .

, ,

for exam ple in S outh A frica and South Ameri ca

,

where t w o or even three crops of maize can be secured

yearly and with proper organizati on this raw material
,

c ould under conditions of mass pr oducti on beco me

,
-

o n e o f the m ost imp ortant sources of supply R ice .

straw again is a Cheap material available in large

, ,

qu a ntities and if the method of utilizing it described

in C hapter III Sh ould pr ove to be successful this and ,

simil a r cellulosic substances may also bec ome factors of

some val ue in the pr oblem of producing alcoh ol Cheap
en ough t o be used as fuel M olasses cane sugar j uice .
,
-

and palm sap are also important th ough restricted , ,

tropical sources of supply .

T hus the ques t i on of p ower alc oh ol largely resolves

itself so far as this c ountry is c oncerned into a matter
, ,

o f getting sufcient supplies of cheap raw materials

by organizing and developing overseas resources .

76 AL C OH O L

We could produce here gallons more than

our presen t output if we c ould devote acres
o f land t o raising m an golds for the purpose ; or if ,

with ou r present acreage of p otatoes we could in crease ,

the yield of this cr op from the present 5} tons t o about

9 t ons per acre .L acking s ome such measures as these ,

we must depend upon irn p ort a t ion s either of the raw ,

materi als or of the alcoh ol itself for any very considerable

,

increase in our supplies of power alcohol .

We may note here certai n conclusions a rrived at by

a Committee on Alc oh ol Motor Fuel which reported
o fci ally on this subj ect in J une 19 19 ,

Al l s al es and de l iveries of power alc oh ol sh ould

be made on the basis of a certied percentage by v olume
o f absolute ethyl alcohol with a minimum o f 90 per cent
,

at a temperature o f 6 2 F .

We are of the opinion that in denatured alcoh ol ,

or in mixtures o f alc oh ol benz ol ether petr ol or the

, , , ,

like sold as p ower alcohol the ratio of water t o al c ohol

, ,

after admixture should n ot exceed on e p a rt by volume

of water to nine parts by v olume of alcohol measured ,

at the ordi nary temperature .

We fur ther consider that when benzol ether , ,

pe trol or the li ke are mixed with al coh ol in qu a ntities

, ,

in excess of those which may be legall y required as

partial denaturants the nature and amounts per cent
,

by volume of such c omponents sp ou l d be pl ai nly stated

on the c ontainers of such mixtures an d on the contracts ,

sal es notes a n d invoices deal ing therewith
-

,
.
 C H A P T ER VI I
AL C OHO L OM ETRY
AN impo rt an t thi ng in connecti on with alc oh o l is t o
kn ow how it is measured The reader is already .

fa mili a r with the fact that al c ohol as ordinarily met ,

with always cont ai ns more or less water T o produce

, .

it entirely free from water is very dif cul t and in fact ,

alc oh ol which is strictly absolute is not required in

commerce or industry I t is found only in the laboratory
.

and but rarely even there Any spirituous liquid .

we deal with whether as a beverage or in the arts or

, , ,

in manufactures is practical ly always a mixture of

,

alc ohol and water at least and may of t en contain ,

other substances as well H ence it bec omes imp ortant

.

t o kn ow how muc h al c oh ol the liquid contains or what ,

is its alc oholic strength .

I n the olden times when alchemists scorned delights

,

and li ved lab ori ous days in search of the philosopher s

st one and the elixir of life v a rious r ough and ready

,
- -

methods were employed for testing the stren gth of

Spirits One of these al chemists R aym ond L u l ly
.
, ,

directed his readers to m ois t en a piece of cloth with

t h e aq ua v i t ae (the spirit to be tested ) and apply a lighted
taper t o it I f the cloth ignited the spirit was to be
.
,

consider ed as a q ua v i t ae rectica t a or strong al cohol , .

A method of testing spirit with oil was also in vogu e .

Some oil was poured int o the spirit if the latter was
strong and therefore of l ow specic gravity it oated
, ,

on the surface of the oil if weak and therefore heavy , ,

it remained underneath the oil .

An other al chemist Bas il V alentine who ourished

, ,

77
78 A L C O H OL

in the fteenth century described a m ode of testing ,

alc oh ol by de a gr a t ion He judged the strengt h of .

aq u a v i t a e by igniting a denite vo lum e o f it I f the .

wh ole burned away it was pure Spiri t if m ore than,

half burned off the spirit was strong if less th an half

, ,

it was weak and needed further rectication

, .

L ater on the gun powder

,
pro of test came in t o use .

A little powder was moistened with spirit and a light ,

applied I f rapid combustion foll owed the spirit was

.
,

high proof I f the powder did n ot bu rn or burned
.
,

o nly with di ffi culty the Spiri t c ontained t o o much water

,

it was weak On the other hand the spi rit was rega rded
.

as good ri ght fu ll and of vertue when the mi xt ure

, ,

burned steadily even if slowly ,

.

The development of more precise meth ods of a ssaying

alc o hol was largely due t o sc al requirements following
upon the taxati on of spiritu ous liquors I n the year .

1666 s ome friction occurred between imp orters of

French brandy and the Cust oms of cials of this country ,

the p oint of dispute be ing the rate of duty chargeable

on the brandy T here were two rates 4d and 8d
.
, . .

per ga l lon for liqu ors o f diff erent q ualities ; and the
,

revenue oi cers guided by the sense of taste in levyi ng

,

the duties decided that F rench brandy ought t o pay

,

the higher amount T his decisi on was contested by the

.

importers b u t it was eventually ratied and made

,

statut ory by an Act of P arliament passed in 16 70 .

P resently h owever fraudulent merchan ts attempted

, ,

by vari ous devi ces to disgu ise the real strength of their
brandies so that other tests besides that of the palate
,

had t o be empl oyed and rec ourse was had at rst , , ,

t o th ose menti oned above But t hese tests were crude .

the results were oft en capricious and the need for better
meth ods o f evaluati on became m ore and m ore app a ren t
as the import ance of spiri t tax ation increased .
 A L C O HOL O M ETRY 79

To wards the Clo se of the century therefore a goo d , ,

deal of attenti on was devoted t o the questi on of ob t aining

a hydrometer suitable for testing spirits Sir Robert .

Boyle the distinguished philosopher ap p ears to have

, ,

been the rst t o apply the principle of the hydrometer

t o the testing o f distilled li qu ors A descripti on of .

his inst rument Boyle s Bubble appears in the

P hil osophic al T ra n sac t i on s of the R oyal Society for

16 75. The genial gossip Samuel P epys however , ,

makes menti on of having seen the inst rument so me

eight years earlier M any o ther pretty things he
.

Sh owed me says P epys ,
an d did give me a glass
,

bubble t o try the stren gth of liquors with .

"

Hydrometers are based up on the fam ous principle

o f Archimedes that a body immersed in a liquid l o ses
,

a part of its weight equal t o the weight of the liquid

displac ed S upp ose we have a h ollow bulb of glass
.

o r metal say t w o cubic inches in vol ume which weighs

, , ,

exactly as much as on e cubic inch o f water When such .

a bulb is placed in water it will Sink until on e half is ,

-

immersed since it wi ll then have displaced a volume of

,

water ( 1 cu in ) equal in weight to its (the bulb s ) own

. .

weight I f t h e bulb is placed in a liquid li ght er than

.

water it will sink further since m ore of the lighter liquid

, ,

must be displaced t o supp ort the same weight A hydro .

meter is essential ly such a bulb provided ( 1) with a ,

graduated stem t o Show ho w f a r it Sinks when placed in

l

v a r i ou s liq u ids and (2) with a ballast of mercury Shot , ,

or other material t o keep it upright when oating .

Bo yle s hydrometer was c omp osed of two glass bu l bs
surm ounted by a glass stem Th e l ower bulb was a .

small on e c ontaining mercury to serve as ballast When .

the instrument was plac ed in water it sank only so far ,

as t o c o ver the t wo bulbs leaving the wh ole of the stem

,

expo sed I n strong spirit it san k till only the top of the
.
,
80 AL C OH O L

stem was left uncovered I n mixtur es of spirit and .

water it san k to intermedi ate positions the larger the

propo rti on of al c oh ol the deeper the bubble sank, .

L ater the stem of the instrument was r oughly

,

gr aduated by me a ns of small bits of c oloured glass ,

stuck on the outside or it was m a rked off int o degrees by
,

lines V ari ous iIn p rov e d forms of the in strument were

.

introduce d as time went on the Chief improvement ,

being the addition of detachable weights at the bott om

of the hydrometer in order t o permit of its use with a
,

larger range of li quids Eventually in 180 2 a hydr o .

, ,

meter devised by Barth olomew S ikes was selected as

the most suitable for scal purposes and this instrument ,

remains to day the o fcial hydr ometer for spirit assaying

-

in this c ountry and in British Overseas P ossessions .

D i fferent fo rms of the inst rument are used in foreign

count ries but all are based on the general principle
,

described above .

T his principle it will be noted is founded up on the

, ,

two facts that the specic gravity of mixtures o f

alc oh ol and water vari es acc ording to the pro p orti on .

o f alcohol present and that the hydrometer C a n

be used t o ascert ain the specic gr avity Before .

describing Sikes s hydrometer more p a rticularly i t ,

will be w ell t o consider the r st part of the question

o f the specic gravitya little m ore Closely
,

The specic gravity of alcohol at the temperature

156 C (60 F ) is 0 79359 water a t the same tempera

.
.
,

ture be ing taken as 1 Mixtures of al cohol and water .

have therefore specic gr avities intermediate between

these limits But on accou nt of the c ontracti on which
.

oc c urs when al coh ol and water are mixed (see page

the specic gravities of such mixtures ar e not strictl y

proportional t o the qu a ntity of alcoh ol present Hence .

this quantity cannot be cal cul a ted from a kn owledge of

 AL C OHOL OM ETRY 81

the specic gravity of alc oh ol o f water and of the mi x , ,

ture I t is necessary t o determine by actual e xperiment

.
, ,

how much alc oh ol there is in any mi x t ure O f alc oh ol and

water havi ng a gi ven spe c ic gravi ty or c onversely t o , ,

mak e mixtur es c onta in ing kn o wn proport i ons of alc oh ol

and water and determine the c orresponding spec ic
,

gravi ties experimentall y When thi s has been d one

.
,

wi th su f cient accu racy the results can be tabulated once

,

for all and used subsequently to n d exactly how much

,

alcoh ol is c ontained in any mixture of alcoh ol and water .

We have Simply t o determine the Specic gravity of

the gi ven mixture and then refer this specic gravity
,

t o the t able of resul ts which will Sh o w the corresp onding

,

quanti t y of alc oh ol For example it has been foun d

.
,

by experiment that a mixture made up of equal parts

by weight of a lc ohol and water has at 15 6 C the , .
,

specic gravity 0 9 182 I f therefore we are given an

.
, ,

unknown mixture of alcoh ol and water and nd that ,

it has the specic gr avity 0 9 182 we kn ow from the -

rec orded experiment j ust mentioned that our mixture

c ontains 50 per cent of al c oh ol by weight .

I t is in this way that tables of al coholi c strengths

have been const ru cted A large number of mixt ures
.

have been made up containing kn own weights of al coh ol

,

mixed with kn own weights of water and the corre

sp on din
g specic gra v ities of these mi xtures have been
ascert ain ed W ith the greatest p ossible accuracy at
selected t emperatures T he results have be en carefully
.

rec orded and emb odied in tables suitable for everyday

,

u se in nding the alc oh ol c ontent of spiritu ous liquids ,

from the weakest t o the strongest .

T o c onst r uct such tables with the requisite degree of

precision is a lab ori ous task Much time and work .

have been expended on it b oth here and abr oad T he , .

chief names to menti on in this c onnecti on are th ose of

82 AL COHOL
G ilpin a n d D rin kwater in t his c o untry o f G ay L ussa c ,
-

in France of T rall es in G ermany and o f M e n del e ff

, ,

in Russia G ilpin indeed may be described as the

.
, ,

founder of al c oh olometry He was the Clerk to the .

Royal Society which body ha d been asked by t he

,

Government in the latter part of the eighteenth century

, ,

to advise them and to assist in ascert aini ng W hat was

the best method of prop ort ionin g the Excise on
Spiri tuous L iquors The secret ary of the Society

.
,

D r C has Blagden rep orted ( 1790 ) that n o method
. .
,

can be accurate except one based upon specic graviti es

and Gilpin carried out the necessary experiment al work .

T he resu lts were published ( 1794) in the P hilosophica l

T r a n sact i on s o f the Ro y al S ociety .

We cann o t st op to trace here the development of

alc oholometry duri ng the int erven ing period ; but it
may be sai d th at the appended alcohol t able is an
abbreviation of revi sed tables issued a few years a go ,

and that in the revisi on the work of Blagden and G ilpin ,

D rinkwater M en del e ff and a G erman oi cia l com

, ,

missi on was utili zed I t thus sums up as it were t he

.
, ,

best wor k of the world s most accurate ex perimenters

in thi s domain N eedless to say the complete table

.
,

is very much more ext ensive and Sh ould be consulted ,

when m ore minute particul a rs ar e requ ired .

I n usin g this or any Simi lar alcohol table it is par

, ,

t icul a rl y to be noted that the li quid t o be tested must not

c ontain anyt hing except alcoh ol and water A t all .

events if any other substances are present the quan tities

, ,

must be so small that they do not appreciably a ffect

the Specic gr avity Hence if such articles as beer
. ,

Wine sweetened gi n
,
tincture of o pi u m or spiri t o f
, ,

c a mphor are being dealt with the alc oh ol must be ,

sep a rated fr om the other in gredients (except water )

before it s quantity can be determined by mea ns of the
 AL C OH O L OM E TRY 83
T AB L E VI
S p ec ic G r a v i ty ] A q u eous
o A l cohol at F .
( 15 -
6
C .
)
by vlo u me

l P roo f pirit
s .

0 794 99 9 -
175 2 -
0 83 1
-
W 159 -
2
w
I

5 99 7 -
174 9 -
U 158 -
7
6 99 5 -
174 5 -
w N 158 -
2
7 99 8
b
t- D
C 1 57 -
6
8 99 1 -
17 3 8 -
I

U D
C 1 57 -
1
9 98 9 -
1 73 4 - D
C
D
O 156 -
6
Q O 156 -
0
0 80 0
-
98 7 -
173 1 - Q Q 1 55 -
5
D # 1 54 9
98 5 1 72 7
-

1 - - C

2 98 3 -
17 2 3 -

3 0 840
-
88 1 -
1 54 -
4
4 97 8 1 87 7 -
1 53 -
8
5 97 6 2 87 4 -
1 53 -
3
6 97 4 -
170 8 - 3 87 1 -
1 52 -
7
7 97 2 -
170 4 - 4 86 8 -
152 -
1
8 96 9 -
170 0 - 5 86 5 -
1 51 -
6
9 6 86 1 -
15 1 -
0
7 85 8 -
1 50 -
4
8 85 5 -
149 -
8
0 8 10
-
96 5 -
16 9 1 -

9 85 1 -
149 -
2
1 16 8 7 -

2 96 0 16 8 3
m
- -

r 148 6 -

3 95 -
7 16 7 8 -

a 14 8 0 -

4 95 -
5 16 7 4 -

2 a 14 7 4 -

5 95 -
2 16 7 0 -

3 s d 1 46 8 -

6 95 -
0 166 5 -

4 a h 14 6 2 -

7 94 -
7 1 66 1 -

5 s 14 5 6 -

8 94 -
5 16 5 6 -

6 s 145 0 -

9 94 2 16 5 1 -

7 s a 144 4 -

8 e o 143 8 -

0 820
-
93 -
9 16 4 -
7 9 s u 143 2 -

1 93 -
7 16 4 -
2
2 93 4 16 3 7 g w 14 2
- -
n :
9 o ao
-
5
3 93 -
1 16 3 -
2 " g o 14 1 -
9
4 92 -
8 16 2 -
8 N g m 14 1 -
3
5 92 6 16 2 3 g w
- - D
O 140 -
7
6 92 -
3 16 1 -
8 A Qs o 14 0 -
0
7 92 -
0 16 1 -
3 I

U Qe m 1 39 -
4
8 91 7 16 0 8 Qw
- -

Q 1 38 -
7
9 91 -
4 16 0 -
2 Q Qe m 138 -
1
W Qs a 137 -
5
0 830 91 1 159 7 \ wL 136 8
I
- - - -
84 C O HO L
AL

T ABL E V I ( cou l d )
i
S p ecic Gr a v ty o f A q ueou s A l cohol at F .
( 15 -
6

C .
)

0 870
-
77 -
7 ON O mm
u 77 -
3 H mH
o
r 76 -
9 1M 8 N g G
a
c 76 -
6 1M 2
D
O m N

m
-
76 -
2 A mx i

u 75 -
8 U
I

mw
m 75 -
4 1M 2
J
O m o
o
i

x 75 -
1 l m N ma
mo
-

m W

a
74 -
7
" 74 -
3 D
C mm
0 %
l 1

o 73 -
9 O l(O \
-
u 73 -
5
e
$5
o
t 73 -
1 N $ 4
w 72 -
7 1W 5
D
Q $6
a 72 -
3 R - $ 4
m
u

H6 1
I

72 -
0 U M C s
m 71 -
6 Q M 1 s m
i

x 71 -
2 Q $7 s
m 70 -
8 IM O Q $2 s
o
c 70 -
4 D
( $7 s k
0 89o
-
70 -
0 0 % O $2 e h
69 M 7 s
md
I t

N 69 -
1 l

b $2 e
W 68 -
7 IN A w $7 s
A 68 -
3 1 W7 b $2 s m
m m
- -

IN D 6
I

67 U s
w 67 -
5 1 3m Q d s c
1U 6 Q C
I
67 -
1 K a o

m 66 -
7 1 %m Q $0 s ~
D
( 66 -
3 6 1 D
C U5 a m
O 65 8
-
15 3 0 % O 0 mn

65 4 -
1M 6
- $4 mw
N 65 0
-
1B 8 N 6 9 mw
Q 64 6
-
3 1 D
O $3 u w
A 64 L
I- M 7 ?W
IM O
I

63 7 M 4
I

O -
U sN
G 63 3
-
IN C D
C $6 aN
Q 62 8
-
IN J H $0 wN
W 62 4
-
m A N
D
C 62 0
- D
( M 8 73- 1
 AL C OH OL OM E I R Y 85

T AB L E V I (con t d ) .

S p ecic Gr av i ty o ] A q ue ou s A l cohol at F ( 15
. 6
-

C .
)

0 950
-
41 -
1 72 -
0 0 9 76
-
20 -
0 34 -
9
1 40 -
5 70 -
9 7 19 -
0 33 -
1
2 39 -
9 69 -
8 8 18 -
0 31 4
3 39 -
2 68 -
6 9 17 -
0 29 7
4 38 -
6 67 -
5
5 37 -
9 66 -
3 09 $ 1 2 O
0
6 37 -
2 65 -
1 1 1 O
3
7 36 -
5 63 -
9 2 1 O
7
8 35 -
8 62 -
6 3 1 2 O
0
9 35 -
1 61 -
3 4 1 2 O
4
5 1 1 O
9
0 96 0
-
34 -
3 60 -
0 6 1 1 O
3
1 33 -
6 58 -
7 7 1 O
9
2 32 -
8 57 -
3 8 1 O
4
3 32 -
0 55 -
9 9 1 O
9
4 31 -
2 54 -
5
5 30 -
3 53 -
0 0 990
-
7 2 1 O
5
6 29 -
5 51 -
5 1 6 4 1 O
2
7 28 -
6 50 -
0 2 5 6 O
8
8 27 -
7 48 -
4 3 4 9 O
5
9 26 -
8 46 -
8 4 1 O
2
5 3 4 O
0
0 970
-
25 -
8 45 -
1 6 2 7 O
7
1 24 -
9 43 -
5 7 2 0 O
5
2 23 -
9 41 -
8 8 1
1 3 O
3
3 22 -
9 40 -
1 9 0 7 O
2
4 22 -
0 38 -
4
21 -
0 36 -
6 1 00 0
-

specic gravity table Usually it is disti lled off thus

.
,

rem ovin g sugars Opium or other s olid matters

, , .

Substan ces which like camphor a n d essential oils

, ,

cannot be elim inated in this way must be extract ed ,

with suitable solvents or separated by other ,

appr op ri ate means .

Havin g then by one meth od or an other obtai ned

, ,

the alc ohol free fr om interfer ing subst a nces its specic ,

gravity is ta ken and referred to the table in order to

,

7( 1466 P )
86 A L C OH O L

ascert a in the proporti on present T o determine the .

specic gravi ty a suitable hydrometer may be used

, ,

or a spirit balan c e or a pykn ometer (specic gravi ty

bottle or tube ) according to the degr ee of accuracy
,

required .

The foll owing examples will i llustrate the pr oced u re .

( 1) S upp o se we have a sample of plain spirit as sent ,

ou t fr o m the distillery and wish to as certain its strengt h

, .

I n this case there are n o s olid matters essential oils , ,

or other substances present t o interfere wi th the spec ic

gravity so that n o preliminary distillati on or other
,

treatment is required We therefore determine the .

, ,

spec ic gravi ty at 60 F by means of a suitable hydr o
.
,

meter balance or pykn ometer L e t the result be say

, ,
.
, ,

0 8180 . On reference t o the table (p 83) we see that .

this c orresp onds with 94 5 per cent of alcoh ol by volume ,

or 16 5 6 per cen t o f proof spirit .

I f the specic gravity had been say 0 8185 then , ,

-
,

since this is between 0 8 18 and 0 8 19 t h e percentage ,

of alc ohol lies between 94 5 and 94 2 and a s imple - -

,

interpolation sh ows it t o be 94 35 -
.

(2) Suppose we have a sample of p ort wine I n this .

case the specic gravity of the liqu or as it stands will be

n o indicati o n at all of its alc oholic strength because ,

p ort wine conta ins not only the natural acids t a nnins , ,

and unfermented sugars of the grape juice but varying ,

am ount s o f added sugar as well and all these increase

the spec ic gravi ty I t is therefore necessary t o di stil
.

the Wine in order t o separate the alcohol (an d

,

incidental ly water ) from these oth er c onstituen ts

A den ite volume of the po rt say 10 0 cu centimetres
.

-
a t 60 F is taken and distill ed until about three

.
,

fourths of the liquid has been c ollected The di sti llate .

,

which will contain a ll the spirit is made up with di still ed ,

water t o the exact origin al volume at 60 F and t h e .
,
 A L C O H OL OM ETRY 87

spe c ic gravi ty taken at this temperature L e t this be .

,

for instance 0 9785 ; then a reference t o the table as

,
-

before wi ll sh ow that the strength o f the wine is 17 5 -

per cent of a lc oh ol by volume or 30 5 per cent of proo f ,

Spirit.

I n passing it may be men tioned that in c ommercial

,

practice it is usual t o refer the Specic gravities of

spiritu ous liquids t o that O f water taken as
instead of 1 so that the ab ove menti oned gure would -

be expressed as 978 5 n ot as 0 9785 This is c onvenient

-
,
-
.
,

as it avoids the use of t oo m any decimals .

'
L e t us retu rn n o w t o Sike s s hydr ometer This .

c onsists o f a gilded brass bulb 1 % in in diameter sur ,

.
,

m ounted by a graduated stem 3 % in l ong and carrying .

,

at its l ower part a sh ort tapering rod ending in a pear ,

shaped counterp oise A series of nine small weights

.

is provided these can be slipped up on the rod t o increase

the weight of the instrument and so a ll ow of its being ,
'

use d for testing Spirits of a wide r a n ge o f specic gravity ,

and therefore of alcoh olic strength .

When the instrument with a suitable weight attached , ,

if necess a ry is placed in a sample of alc oh ol it sinks

, ,

until the surface o f the li quid cuts some p oint of the

graduated stem T he reading thus obtained is termed
.

the indication
A table is supplied with the hydro
.

meter sh owing the strength of spirit c orresp onding

,

with the vari ous indicati on numbers for a series

o f temperatures ranging fr om 30 F to 10 0 F Hence . .

all that is necessary is t o refer the in dicati on to the

proper table c orresp onding with the temperatur e of
,

the alc oh ol under test and the strength of the spirit

,

is found at once .

I n Sike s s tables the strength is given in terms of

degrees o ver pr oo f pro of or , under proof , ,

an d these are the commercial expressions employed in

88 A L C OH OL

this c ountry in c onnection with spi ritu ous beverages .

A much shortened table is adduced here by way of

ill ustrati on
T AB L E V I I
S I K ES S S YSTEM

T EM P ERAT U RE 60 F
.

Hy drome te r S t ren gt h
I n di ca ti on . Ov er p roof .

0 66 7 -

10 58 4 -

20 48 9 -

30 38 0 -

40 26 0 -

50 12 9-

Un de r p roof .

60 17
70 18 6-

80 40 3 -

90 71 9 -

10 0 10 0 0-

Thus if the indi c ati on is 30 the c orresp onding spirit

, ,

strength is 38 0 O P i e the specimen tested c ontains

-
. . . .

alc oh ol equi valent t o 138 0 per cent of proof Spirit .

I f the indicati on is 80 the strength is 40 3 U P and the

, ,

alc oh ol present is 10 0 40 3 59 7 per cent of -

pro of spi rit .

Sike s s hydrometer d oes n ot Sh ow directly the specic

gravity of the alc oh ol tested and it is therefore necessary ,

t o have the special tables which are supplied wi th the

instrument When the Specic gravity is required how
.
,

ever it c an be obtained indirectly by r st ascert aining

,

the alc oho l ic strength with the hydrometer and its

special table and then referring this strengt h to the
,

o rdinary alcoh ol table (p .

Experiments have als o been m ade t o determine the

specic gravities which c o rrespond with the indi cation
numbers of Sike s s hydrometer T he results have been

.

utili zed in const r ucting a table to Show from the ,

 FIG . 9

IM M E R S I O N REFRA CTOM ETER WI TH ROTAT I N G B ATH

A pri sm whose refractive su rface i s immersed in the li q u id
in the glass beneath
B bath wi th thermo meter .

L ight p asse s throu gh a wind o w in the b otto m o f the ba th a n d ,

after a simple adj u stment o f the instru ment the sca le reading
,

i s o bserved thr ou gh the teles co pe. T h e scale readi ng referred t o

,

in the table s gives the al coholi c strength of the sol u tio n exa mined
, .
90 AL C OHOL
indicati on the weight o f spirits per gall on This meth od
, .

is much used by revenue of cials for ascertaining the

vo lume o f spirits in c asks T he table is t oo l ong t o .

q u ote here but a Simple ill ustrati on will explain its

,

use By weighing the c ask before and after lling the

.

weight o f the Spirit is obtained in p ounds Su pp ose .

this weight to be for example 583 lb I f the indicati on

, , .

is say 10 the weight of the spirit p er ga ll on is 8 326

, , ,

lh .from the table in questi on Then di viding this

, .

number int o 583 we get 583

,

2 8 326 70 0 the number

,
- -

o f bulk ga l lo ns o f spirit in the cask .

Hy dr ometers for spirit assaying in other countries -

are constructed on essentiall y the sam e principle as

'
Sike s s instrument but differ in the meth ods o f express
,
'
ing the results T hus in France where G ay L u ssa c s
.
,

hydr ometer is used the in strument den otes percentage

,

of absolute alcoh ol by volume I n G ermany the .

,

hydrometer empl oyed shows the percentage of al coh ol

by weight I n the United S tates the results are gi ven
.
,

in terms of proof spirit but the strength of this proof ,

spirit i s different from that ad opted in this c ountry .

I t c ontains in fact 50 per cent of alc oh ol by v olume

, , ,

whereas British proo f spirit c ontains 57 1 per cent .

A brief reference to the applicati on of the

refract ometer t o spirit assaying may be made -
.

The refractive indices of a q ue ous s oluti ons of alc oh ol

thr ough out the entire range of strengths between water
and a b s olute alc oh o l have been determined and tables ,

have been c onstructed c orrelating the scale degrees of

the particular refract ometer used with the refractive
indi ces and the alc oh olic strength s of the s oluti ons
, ,
.

(S ee F ig The auth or s larger treatise may be

.

c ons u lted for det ails and applicati ons o f the meth od .

So me useful rules and examples of alc oh ol calculati ons

will be found in C hapter I X .
 C HA P T ER V I II
M ETH YL AL COHOL AN D H I G HE R AL C OH O L S

( I ) M eth y l Alc oh ol I n the introductory chapter

.

it was po inted ou t that besides ordinary or ethyl

,

alcoh ol m any other bodies are known which Chemically

, , ,

bel ong t o the same Class of substances and are therefore ,

likewise termed alcohols N o d oub t it is true that
.

ethyl alcoh ol is far and away the m ost import an t

member of the Class but there is at least on e other which
,

is of quite c onsiderable sign icance commercially T his .

is the li quid kn own as wo od spirit or methyl alc oh ol .

AS the former of these t wo names indicates this ,

product is obtained from wood I t does not h owever .

, ,

exist ready formed in wood I t is produced by the .

dec omposition of so me of the woody constituents

under the acti on of heat when wo od is dry distilled
,

with exclusion of air I n much the same way coal tar

.
,

for example d oes n o t pre e xist in coal but is formed

,
-

when coal is distilled in ret orts I f either wood or coal .

is heated t o a su fcient temperature in the open air it

will of c ourse eventually take re and burn The
, , .

oxygen o f the air c ombines with the c a rbon and hydr o

gen oi the wood or coal a n d the greater p ar t of these

,

is lost a s carbon di o xide and water But if the supply .

of oxygen is restricted this process of decomp ositi on

,

is st opped half way as it were

-
The complex .

c onstituents of t he wo od or coal are broken down into

simpler bodi es but in the absence of oxygen they are
,

n o t c ompletely burned away .

I t is these intermedi ate simpler subst an ces which a re

impo rtant in the present connecti on Some of them .

91
92 AL C OHOL

are gases and these may be passed away or burnt for

,

heating purp oses others are vap ours which on c ooling , ,

condense to form tar and other li q uids T he solid .

residue remain ing in the ret orts forms in the case of ,

the wood Charc o al and in the case o f the coal co k e

, , , .

With wood the Chief product of such a

,
dry
di sti l lation other than Charcoal and a relatively Smal l
,

amoun t of wood t a r is a dar k red brown liquid t ermed

, ,
-

pyroli gneous acid

T hi s consists largely of weak
.

acetic acid but Contains al so methyl alcohol acetone

, , ,

and other bodi es .

To obt ai n the methyl al cohol the pyroligneous ,

l iquor is neutr al i ze d wi th lime and distill ed T he lime .

comb ines with the acid to fo rm calcium acetate (acetate

of l ime ; grey acetate which remain s beh ind in
the still the methyl alcohol mixed wi th much water , ,

dist ils over I n order t o remove the water and acet one
.

which also distils o ver ) the distillate is redistilled

( ,
.

The crude wood spirit thus obtained is n ally rectied

unt il the desired degree of pur ity and streng t h is reached .

T o elim inate the last sm a ll qu a ntities of acetone and

,

other impurities the pr oduct is treated with v a ri ous

chemical sli me or s oda su lphuric acid bleachin g
,

, ,

powder an d Chlorineand then again rectied

,
.

M ost of t he methyl al cohol disti l led from wood is

not very highly puried I t is s old as crude wood
.

spirit or commercial wood naphtha Much of thi s .

is employed as a solvent in the manufacture of varnishes ,

lacquers rubber solutions an d similar products An

, , .

o ther irn p ort an t applicati on of wood naphtha is as a

denaturan t of ethyl alcohol used for industrial purposes .

I n some respects it is p a rticularly suitable for den atur ing

industrial alcohol since the impurities it cont ains
,

help to make the spiri t unpotable whilst the methyl ,

a lcoh o l is re a dily detec t able in the denatured spirit ,

 M E TH Y L AL C OHOL AN D H G HER I AL C OHOL S 93

and thus serves t o earmark the latter and prevent

its ill icit use in beverages A t the same time the .

acet one which it c on tains and which is by far the largest ,

of the impurities d oes n ot in ge neral prevent the

, , ,

industrial spi ri t from being used in manufacturing

o perations .

Wo od naphtha is usually produced a t about 94 per

cen t strength (by volu me ) but this includes a good ,

prop ort ion of acetone rangin g fr om 10 t o 20 per cent

,

or more Wh en used as a solvent there is n o obj ecti on

.
,

to even the larger propo rti ons of acetone since this ,

la t ter is itself a go od solvent for resinous b odi es For .

use as a denaturant wo od naphtha in this c oun try ,

must not contai n more than 12 grams of acet one per

10 0 cubic centimet res or appro ximately 15 per cent ,

by volume I n France h owever a minimum of 25

.
, ,

per cent is required .

Besides this crude wood spirit a more hi ghly re ct ie d ,

-

and rened product is made for c ommercial use contain ,

ing from 97 t o 98 per cent of true methyl alcoh ol and ,

o nly 1 per cent or less of acetone T his quali ty is

, ,
.

employed in large am ounts for ma king formaldehyde ,

a subst an ce used in the an iline dye ind ustry and also ,

as a disin fect ant (The antiseptic product known as

.

formal in is a solution of form al dehyde in water ;

it contains from 38 to 40 per cent of form aldehyde ) .

I n the United S tates and in C an ada this m ore highly

puried quality of methyl alcohol is sold under v ari ous

trade n ames such as colonial spiri ts
, C olumbian ,

sp irits an d standard wood spiri ts
,
"
.

I n additi on to their use for making formaldehyde ,

the purer grades of methyl alcohol nd considerable

application in the preparati on of intermediates
for the manufacture of c o al tar dyestuffs D imethyl -
.

anilin e for example is prep ar ed by heating together

, , ,
94 AL C OHOL
under pressure methyl alc oh ol aniline a n d sulphuric
, , ,

acid the product obt ained is used in maki ng the dyes

methyl vi olet methyl orange malachite gr een and others
, , , .

D imethyl sulphate made from methyl alc oh ol and

,

sulphuric acid is an other example o f a methyl alc ohol

,

derivative used in the making o f dyes .

Vari ous c ompounds used as a v ou ri n gs and perfumes

are als o prepared from methyl a lc oh ol Examples of .

these are methyl benzoate N i obe Oil and methyl

salicylate (articial Oil of Wintergreen ) The latter is .

empl oyed to some extent in medicine as well as in ,

perfumery .

Although methyl alc oh ol of a high degree of purity

is an ordi n a ry commercial ar t icle the abso lute ,

Chemically pure c omp ound is j ust as rare as the t m l y

-

absolute ethyl alc ohol L ike the latter it is practically

.
,

never required except for scientic investigati ons ,

and is then Specially prepared by chemical processes .

I t is a c olourless li qu id with a spirituous od our b oiling

, ,

at 66 C ( 150 8
.
-

I t s spec ic gravity at 15 C .

(59 F ) is 0 7 96 4 7 water at the same temperature

.
,

being t aken as unity .

M ixtures of methyl alcoh ol and water have nearly

the sa me specic gravities as the c orresponding mixtures
o f ethyl alc ohol and water Hence for approximate .
,

pu rposes the alcoh o l table already given (p 83) can

, .

also be used for nding the strengt h of aqueous soluti ons

of methyl alcoh ol .

T he main S ources o f supply of methyl alcohol are

naturally the cou ntries where wood is plentifu l Hence .

it is not surprising to nd that a large quantity is made

in the United S tates D uring t he war in fa ct our .
, ,

s upplies were drawn almost entirely from that coun t ry

and C anada A relati vely small q uantity is made here

. .

Much larger quantities are produced in Austria Hun gary , ,

 M ETHY L AL C OH OL AN D H G HER I AL C O HO L S 95

and Germany ; and the industry is bein g devel oped -

in Australia t o some extent T he va rieties o f wood .

chiey used for distillati on in America are beech birch , ,

maple oa k and th orn

, ,
.

C are Sh oul d be taken n o t t o c on fu se wood Spirit

or methyl alc oh o l with the ordinary (ethyl ) alc oh o l

which can also be obtained from wood T he former .

is pr oduced as just described during the direct (dry )

, ,

distillati on o f wood the ethyl alcohol is obtained by

rst c onvert ing the cellul o se substances of wood int o
fermentable sugars thr ough the acti on of acids then ,

fermenting these sugars with yeast and disti ll ing o ff ,

the resulting ethyl alc oh ol The la t ter however .

, ,

when obt ai ned from wood usu al ly c ontains a very ,

small quantity of the methyl product .

T here is o n e imp o rt ant respect in which methyl

alc oh o l di ffers from ordi nary alc ohol I t is distinctly .

m ore p ois onous M an y fat al cases have occurred

.
,

c hi ey in the United S tates and in G ermany thr ough ,

the drin king of methyl alc oh ol either al one or mixed ,

with ordinary spirit I n on e case at Berlin a factitious

.

schnapps was c onc octed by mixing 4 parts o f methyl

alc ohol with 1 part of ethyl alc oh ol this was drunk by
a lar ge number of people with very seri ous c onsequences
, .

N inety v e of the participants were taken ill and 70

-

o f them died A usual sympt om of methyl alc oh ol

.

po isoning in fatal cases is the occurrence of b lin dness ,

which comes on a few h ours before death .

T he name methyl alc oh ol was gi ven t o the liquid
under discussi on by MM D umas and P ligot who made
.
,

a careful examinati on of it in 1834 and pointed out ,

its resemblance t o ordin ar y al coh ol I t has h owever .

, ,

been kn own since the seventeenth century when B oyle ,

sh owed that it c ould be separated from pyroligne ous

acid by di st illi ng the latter substance over burnt
96 AL C OH OI .

c oral B oyle termed the alcoh ol adiaphorous sp irit
.
,

in reference to its neutral character as c ompared wi th ,

the acid li quid from which it was obtai ned .

(2 ) Hi gher A lc ohols C l osely asso ciated with ordinary

.

alcohol are cert a in o ther b odies of the same chemical

t ype but differing in some of their propert ies b oth
,

fr om ethyl alcohol and fr om on e another I t was .

mentioned in C hapter I I that in distilling off the alcoh ol,

from a fermented mash one of the obj ects achieved by,

the rectier column of a patent still wa s the sep a ra

tion of fusel oil from the alcoh ol T his fusel oil .

is a mixture of va rious substances ; but its m ain con

st i t u e n t s are four alcohols which Since they c ontain ,

a l arger number of carbon atoms in the molecule than

ord in ary alcohol does are o ften referred to as
,
higher
alcohols .

These are produced during fermenta t ion by the , ,

action of yeast up on cert ain nitrogen ous bodies which

are present in the materials of the mash The propor .

ti on of fusel oil formed is relatively very sm al l o nly

about 0 5 per cent of the alcohol produced on the
-
,

average T he actual quantity h owever is by no means

.
, ,

inc onsiderable and the oil itself is of some commerci al

,

impo rt an ce as is al so one of the four higher alcohols

,

which it c ontains .

T hese four alcohols are termed ( 1) propyl (2) is obutyl , ,

(3) active amyl and (4) inactive amyl al cohols The

, , .

last two ar e usu a lly classed together as amyl alcoh ol ,

N o 4 bein g h owever the larger constituent

.
, ,
.

P ropyl alcohol is very similar to ordin ary (ethyl )

alc ohol but has a greater specic gravity (0 80 765)
,

and a higher boiling p oint I sobutyl alcohol and the .

two amyl alc oh ols have st ill higher boiling points and ,

di ffer from the ethyl and pr opyl members in possessing

a rather disagreea ble fu sel oil odour and in having
 M ETH Y L A L C O H O L AN D H GH I ER A L C OHOL S 97

a less m obile more oily character as well as in being

, , ,

much less so luble in water .

The following table wi ll serve t o summari ze the

formulae bo il ing points and specic gravities of these
, ,

higher al coh ols in c omparison with th ose of the l ower

members of the alc oh ol Class
T AB L E V I II
P ARTIC U L ARS OF V ARI OU S AL C O H OL S
C h mi l
N a m F rm l
o
e ca
u a.
1

M ethyl Al co h ol C H a OH -
66 -
0 0 7 96 5
Ethyl Al cohol C , H 6 OH
.
-
78 -
3 0 7936
-

N o rm al P ro pyl Al coho l C, H , O H -
97 -
4 0 80 76
-

I so bu ty l Al co hol C , H 9 OH -
10 8 -
4 0 80 6 2
-

A c ti ve Amyl Al coho l C sH u O H -
1 28 -
7 0 82 1 4
-

I n a c ti ve Amyl Al co h ol C sH u O H -
13 1 -
4 0 8 158
-

I t may be menti one d that there are other propyl ,

butyl an d amyl alc oh ols kn own besides those indicated

, ,

in the table Whil st there is only on e methyl alc oh ol

.
,

and on ly on e ethyl alcohol there are t wo propyl four , ,

butyl and no fewer than eight amyl alc ohols known t o

,

chemists These b odies are distingu ished one from

.

a nother by di fferences in their Chemical and physical

properties Only those described above however

.
, ,

are produced in normal alcoh olic fermentation T he .

o thers are o f i nterest theoretic al ly an d one of the ,

butyl alcohols is of some practical import ance I n the

manufacture of synthetic rubber but except for this ,

brief notice we need not further c onsider them .

But it may be asked why are the higher alcohols

, ,

o f fu sel oil o f interest in c onnecti on with ordin ary

a lcoh ol P

Well for one thing they are present t o a sm a ll

, , ,

e xtent in brandy rum and whisky they help t o gi ve

, , ,
98 AL C OHOL

to these beverages the special character which dis

t in gu ish e s them fr om neutral or Silent patent
still spirit T his is especially true of whisky and whilst
.

the characteristic avours of brandy and rum are mainly

due t o certain other c omp ounds there is
no d oubt that the higher alc ohols also c ontribute their
share They form in fact the greater part o f the so
.
, ,

called secondary c onstituents which di fferentiate
these beverages from Simple alcoh ol .

T heir presence in brandy rum a n d whisky is due to

, ,

the fact that these liqu ors are either distilled in simple
p ot stills or else in m odicati ons o f the pot sti l l ;
,

and in neither case d oes the apparatus separate the wh ole

o f the fusel oil b odies from the spirit as the patent s t ill ,

does .

Fusel oil itself is chiey used as a source of the higher

alc oh ols which are separated fr om it by a process of
,

fractional distillati on Amyl alc oh ol is the main

.

product I t is empl oyed for making amyl acetate

.
,

which is the Chi ef c onstituent of the pear essen c e

used in a v ou rin g c onfecti onery A cruder variety .

o f amyl acetate is applied as a s olvent for cellul oid

substances in the manufacture of varnishes and su b st i

t u t e s for leather Amyl alc oh ol is also used in lab orat ory
.

operati ons as a solvent for extracting alkal oids and in

,

the analysis o f milk I sobutyl and pr opyl alcoh ols

.

have little or n o technical applicati on their chief use

is for laborat ory purp o ses .
 C H A P T ER IX

MI CE L ANEO US N OTES A
S L N D ST ATI STI C S
D et e c ti o n f A l h l T test f
o alc oh ol in an aqueous
co o . o or

soluti on the following experiments are comm only made

( )
1 A b o ut 2 or 3 cubic centimetres o f the liquid are

taken in a test tube and a few drops of acetic acid

-

added An equal volume of strong sulphuri c acid is

.

then carefully mixed with the s oluti on in the tube ,

and the mixture already warm thr ough the action o f the
,

sulphuric acid on the water is gently heated a little ,

m ore I f alc oh ol is present a characteristic fruity odour

.
,

is developed due t o ethyl acetate produced by the

,

c ombin ation o f the alc oh ol with the acetic acid .

(2) A few dr ops of a soluti on o f i odine and potassium

iodide in water are added t o a little of the liquid t o be
tes ted an d the mixture is then warmed A Soluti on
,
.

o f so dium hydr o xide or s odium carbonate is then added ,

drop by drop until the col our of the i odine is just barely
,

discharged On all owing the mixture t o stand for s ome

.

time a light yell ow precipitate o f i odoform will appear

if alc ohol was present even in a relatively small pro ,

p orti on whilst in very weak solutions the Characteristic

odour o f i odoform can be detected alth ough the p r e cip i ,

tate may be imperceptible I t is t o be noted h owever .

, ,

that thi s i od oform test is gi ven by acet one under the

same c onditi ons as well as by lactic ac id and some other
,

bodi es Hence the result Sh ould always be conrmed

.

by the ethyl acetate test unless it is kn own for certain ,

that n one of these interfering substan ces can be present .

M ixtur es which c ontain ingredients other than alc oh ol

a n d water should be distilled before these tests are

app l ied and the experiments made on the distill ate

, .

M ore over if there are volatile bodies such as essential

, ,

99
10 0 AL C OHOL

O ils in the mixture these wi l l als o distil over with the

, ,

alc oh ol ; and though it is n ot always necessary it is ,

generall y better t o separate them before applying the

tests for al coh ol T o e ffect this the di still ate is shaken
.
,

up wi th powdered s al t until it is saturated with the latter ,

and the oils or other impurities extracted by shaking

with petroleum ether T he aqueous salt solution wi ll
.

ret ain the alcoh ol I t is run off fr om the petroleum

.

ether (which will contain the oils and agai n ,

di sti lled to separate the alcohol T he tests may n ow .

be applied to the pu ried disti l late .

D etecti on o f M ethy l A l cohol When a liquid pu ri ed

.
,

if necessary by the process j ust desc ri bed has been ,

o btained fr ee fr om o ther substances except ethyl and

methyl alc ohols and water i t may be tested for the ,

presence of methyl alcoh ol in the fo llowi ng m a nner .

( )
1 D iss o lve a little sodium f o rmate in about t wo

cubic centimetres of water and add ab out the same ,

volume of the liquid t o be tested Then pour c arefull y

.
.

into the mixture an equal quantity of strong sulphuric

acid On mixing the c ontents of the test tube warmin g
.
-

a little more if necessary an od our of methyl format e

, ,

re c all ing the smell of chloroform will be developed if ,

methyl alcohol was present .

(2) A similar experiment may be made with so di um

salicylate substituted for the so dium formate I n thi s .

case the odour produced wi l l be that of methyl salicylate

(oil of W intergreen ) .

(3) T he li quid to be tested (ab out 5 cubic cent imetres )

is mixed with an equal volume of sul phuric acid (50
per cent strength ) an d placed in a small ask containing
,

3 or 4 grams of powdered p otassium dichr omate and

about 5 cubic centimetres of water A ft er being mi xed .

an d all owed to st a nd a few minutes the Contents of ,

the ask a re diluted with an eq u al volume of water and

 SCE L L ANEO US N OTES STATI STIC S
'

M I AN D 10 1

disti l led The distillate will cont ain formic aci d if

.

methyl alc ohol was o rigin ally present I t is neutr ali zed .

with solution of sodi um carbonate evaporated to dryn ess , ,

an d the residue re di ssolved in a little water T o

-
.

a po rtion of the resulting li quid a few dr ops of Si lver

nitrate soluti on are added and the mixture w a rmed , .

A blac k or brownish black deposit of reduced sil ver

-

indicates the presence of a formate and hence of methyl ,

al cohol in t h e o rigin al li qu id This may be con rmed .

by addin g a little mercuric chloride solution to another

porti on of the solution obtained after the evaporation ;
on heating a whi te preci pitate of mercurous Chloride
,

is given if a formate is presen t .

More del icate tests for methyl alcohol ar e based upon

the fact that form al dehyde is prod uced when the alcohol
is oxidi zed The details of the method are not suitable
.

for inclusi on in a work like the present but full di recti ons ,

will be found in the author s larger treatise .

C al cul ati ons The following rules are often useful

. .

( 1) T o convert percentage of alcohol by volum e

into percent age by weight .

Mul tiply by 0 7 936 an d di vide by the specic gravity

,

of the liquid in question .

Ex amp le Suppose we have a diluted al cohol of say

.
, ,

50 2 p e r cent strength by volume

-
From T able V I we nd .

its specic gravity to be 0 934 I ts percentage of al cohol

by weight is therefore 50 2 X 0 7 936
.

2 0 934 42 6 -
.

(2) T o convert }percentage by volume into grams of

alcohol per 10 0 cubic centimetres .

Multiply by 0 7 9284 T hus the diluted a lcohol in .

the above e xam ple would contain 50 2 X 0 7 9284

39 8 gr am s of absolute a lcohol in every 10 0 cu bic
-

centimetres or 398 gr ams per litre

, .

(3) T o convert percentage of proof spirit (by volum e )

into percen t age of alc oh ol by volume .

8 (
1 46 6 r ) 20 pp .
 10 2 AL C OHOL

D i vide by 1 7 535 Or for practical purposes .

, ,

multiply by 4 and d ivide by 7 .

Ex amp le G iven percentage of p roof spirit 87 8 -

Then 878 x 4
. .

2 7 50 2 the correspondi ng p er -

centage of al c ohol by volume to the nea rest rst decimal ,

.

T AB L E I X
P ERCENTAGE O E P R oo r S P I RIT AN D o r A B S OL U TE A L C O H OL IN
B EVE RAGES A s S O L D IN TH IS CO UNTRY
I S P I R I T S .

I Ab so lu t e
P roo f Spirit Al coho l
BE E
,

V R AG E p er t
ce n . I p er ce nt
vl
.

b y o ume .

V ARI O US S P IRITS ( Whi sky , Gi n ,

et c .
)
A t 25 u .
p . 75 0 -
42-8
30 u .
p . 70 -0 40 0 -

35 u .
p . 6 5-0 37 1 -

40 u .
p . 60 0 -
34 3 -

50 u .
p .

II W I N ES
.

Abs l t o u e
P r f S pirit
oo , Al h l
co o
BE E
V R AG E .
p t
e r cen p ce t
er n
,

by
v ol urn e

P o rt 35 3 -
20 2 -

Sherry 29 5 -
16 9 -

M a de i ra 28 9 -
16 5 -

T arragon a 27 2 -
15 5 -

A u s trali an B u rg u ndy 24 8 -
14 2 -

I talian Red Wine 23 9 -

13 7 -

C hampagne 23 6 -
13 5 -

F ren c h Bu rgu ndy (red ) 22 12 6 -

Califo rnian Bu rgu ndy 20 8 -

11 9 -

I talian Whi te Wine 20 6 -

11 8 -

Fren ch B u rgu ndy (white ) 20 2 -

11 6 -

Bo rdeau x (white) 19 11 4 -

( re d ) 17 0 -
97 -

C ider (b o ttled )
N .
T hese wines represent the Cheaper bran ds re tailed b y
B .

grocers T h e percent age Of Spirit n at u rall y v ari es a little the

.

gu res gi ven a re th o se of a se ri es of an al yse s made for the L i q uor

Co ntrol Board .
 M I SCE L L ANE O US N OTES AN D STATI ST IC S 10 3

I II BEE R S
.
( 19 17)

by vl me
o u .

P al e or Bitt er Ale 0

L o nd o n St o u t 0

Bu r t o n Al e 0

L i ght P ale Ale 0

M i ld Ale (N o 1) .
0

P o rter 0

M ild Ale (N o 2) .
0

These ex a mples it shoul d be m entioned rep re

, ,

sent pur chases made at the end of 19 17 for the L iquor

C ontrol B o ard They indicate therefore the alcoholic
.
, ,

strengt hs of the various kinds of beer current in war

time .

As regards the last column it may be noted that the ,

origin al gravity denotes the spec ic gravity of the

wort before fermentation Beer in this country is .

t axed not upon the amoun t of al c ohol which it actu all y

,

contains but upon the specic gravity of t h e un fe r

,

men t ed wort which is in a sense a measure of the

, ,

p ote n ti al quantity o f alcohol I t d oes n ot necessarily

.

foll ow that beer with a high ori ginal gravity will al ways
c ontain m ore al c ohol th an beer of a lower o riginal
gravity because the proporti o n of al cohol produced wi l l
,

depend on the extent t o which ferment ation is carri ed

but spea king broadly it would be true to say that a
,

high ori gin al gr avity of the w ort generally c onnotes

a high percentage of alcoh ol in the beer .

Before the war the current alcoholic strengths of

beer were appreciably higher than the foregoing as ,

wi l l be gathered from the summary on the ne x t

page .
10 4 AL COHOL
Iv .
BEE R S (P u W A R ) -

BE E
V R AG E .

Engli s h Stro ng Al 19 -
0 10 9
-

D u bli n Stou t 12 -
3 70
-

B u rto n P ale Al e 12 2
Am eri can Ale 11 -
5
L o nd o n P o rter
P il sener Beer
Engli sh L ight Ale ( bo ttled )
M u ni ch Beer
L ond o n M i ld Ale

A nual P ro ducti on of Alc oh ol I n the Uni ted

n .

Kingdom the t ot al quan tity of Spirits distill ed in each

of the ve years shown below was as fol lows
T ABL E X
A L C OHOL D ISTI L L ED IN T HE UNI TED KINGD O M

f l
'

21
P roo Ga l ons E V a
.

19 10
1 9 12
19 14
19 16
1 9 18

T he increased
quan tities Sh own in the ye a rs 19 14
and 19 16 were due t o war requirements T he c onsider .

able decrease in 19 18 was no doubt due partly t o the

, ,

cessati on of the war and p a rtly to Shortage of raw

,

materials .

I n the t able on page 10 5 a summ ary is gi ven of the

appro ximate annu al production of al c oh ol in pre war -

times by the larger countries of the world wi th the ,

principal raw materi als employed .

 M I SC EL L A N E O US N OTES AN D STATI STIC S 10 5

TA BL E XI
A NN UAL P R O D UCTI O N or A L C O H O L
A v er age " or t he ve y ea r s 190 9 19 13
Millio n l
Ga l on s of 10 0
p er cen tA
l co ho l .

Used for
Chi f M t ri e a e a ls Used .

Ta ma r
Pu rposes .

A u stri a -
H u ng ary 60 6 -
10 4 -
M ai ze beet mol as ses
, , .

59 3 -
14 7 -
Beet mol asse s fru it
, , ,

p otatoe s .

82 9 -
34 9 -
P o ta t oe s gr ain m ol as, ,

se s fru it
I taly
.
,

9 4 -
2 -
3 G rain fr it ,
u .

R u ssi a 125 9 -
8 -
8 P o t a t oe s gr ain
United Kin gd o m
.
,

26 0 -
3 -
9 G rain m ol as se s , .

United State s 72 2 -
5 8" G r ain mol asse s , .

Co nsump ti on of Sp irits in t h e Unite d K in gdom

T he .

table annexed shows the quan tities of home made -

and impo rt ed spirits retained for consumption in this

c ountry with the quantity per head of the populati on
, .

I t does not include a lc ohol used for m ak ing methylated

Spirit or for other industri al and educ a ti on al purposes
fr ee of duty
T ABL E X I I
.

AL C O H OL C O NS U MED I N T H E UNITED K INGD O M

H ome
ma de
Y ear .

Mill i on s of P roo Ga f ll
on s . P roo f Ga l l
ons p e r H ea d .

19 10 24 4 -
4 -
6 26 0 - -
48 -
10 -
58
19 1 1 25 3 -
5 -
6 30 9 - -
56 -
12 -
68
19 12 25 4 -
5 -
5 30 -
56 -
12 -
68
1913 25 3 -
5 -
4 30 7 -
55 -
12 -
67
19 14 26 8 -
5 -
8 32 6 - -
58 -
13 -
71
19 15 27 8 -
6 -
5 34 3 - -
60 -
14 -
74
19 16 28 9 -
6 -
6 35 5 - -
63 -
14 -
77
19 17 18 8 -
5 -
2 24 0 - -
41 -
11 -
52
1 9 18 10 3 -
4 -
4 14 7 - -
22 -
09 -
31
19 19 11 9 -
3 -
7 15 6 - -
26 -
08 -
34

Average for 3 ye ars .

10 6 AL C OH OL

I n dus t r ial Alc

h ol I n normal times the quantity
o .

of methylated spirit produced in the United K ingdom

is about of bulk gall ons yearly Of this .
,

minerali zed methylated spir it constitutes rather m ore

than one th ird the remainder being the industrial
-

variety T hus for the ve years 19 10 to 19 14 inclusive

.
, ,

the average annual qu a ntity of the minerali zed Spi rit

sent into consumpti on by makers was 1 6 6 milli ons ,

and of the industrial spirit 2 89 mi l lions of bul k gallons .

I n addition to the foregoing appro ximately ,

pro of gal lons of alcohol p er a n n um gallon s

o f absolute alcoh ol ) were used during the same peri od

for particu lar manufact u res and in teaching and

research this alc oh ol was either Specially denatured or
used in a pure c onditi on without denaturants .

I m p orts a n d Exp orts I n n ormal times the import s

.

of plain spirits (n ot sweetened or avoured ) into t he

United Kingd om amount t o about to
proof gallons chiey from G ermany and Russia But
, .

during and since the war our principal overseas supp l ies
came from the United S tates C anada and latterly , ,

N atal an d the qu an tities have been somewhat larger .

T AB L E X III
P L AI N S P IRITS I M P O RTED

P roo f gall o n s .

Cou ntry .

19 17 . 19 18 . 1 9 19 .

United States
Ca n ad a

Other cou ntries

The appearance of N atal as an exp orter of alc oh ol

to this country is noteworthy in View of the qu estion ,
 M I SC EL L ANE OUS N OTES AN D STATI STIC S 10 7

of o btaining power alcoh ol fr om British overse as
possessi ons (p .

I mported whis ky (Am erican and C anadian ) is included

in the above quantities of plain spirits Most of .

the alcohol however was used for industrial p u rposes

, , ,

and is not included in the table showing the c onsumption

o f import ed spiri ts in t h is c ountry (p .

As regards e xports the quantity of home made ,

-

alcohol sent abroad in norm al times is about

proof gall ons annually T his d oes n ot in c lude methylated
.

spirit of which n o e xport particulars are avai lable

, .

R evenue from Sp irits T he average net receipts

.

from spirits in the United Kin gdom during the ten

years 19 10 19 19 were 2 1 5 milli on p ounds ye a rly -
.

For the last ve ye a rs of this peri od the gures are

Ye a r . A mo un t .

1 9 15
19 1 6
19 17
1 918
19 19

Of these am ou nts approximately four ft hs were

,
-

c ontributed by h ome m a de Spirits and the rem a inder

-

by imports T he returns for the years 19 17 and 19 18

.

were exceptionally low on account of war conditi ons , .

R a tes of D uty on Alcoh ol Unite d K in gdom These .

rates vary of course from period to period according

, , ,

t o the Budget requirements .

Ex c is e D uties M ay 1922
-

,
g s d
,
. .

Beer of ori gi nal Speci c gr avi t y

,

p e r 36 gall o ns

10 55 5
Cider a n d P erry
.

4 gall on .

Spirit s
Wareh ou sed for 3 years or mo re 3 1 2 6 the pr oo f g all o n .

2 t o 3 ye ars 3 13 6
N ot wareh o used or wareh ou sed ,

for les s th a n 2 ye ars 3 14

In the last t wo cases the extra I s a n d I s 6d , . . .

10 8 A L C OHOL

respectively are addi tion al duties in respect of

immature spirits "Unless k ept in w a rehouse for at
.

least t hree years spirits are regarded as insuf ciently

,

mature d ] S uch spirits must have been disti l led at a

strengt h of at l e ast 60 over proof an d ar e only ,

delivered to persons authori zed to receive them for

cert ain appro ved purposes (see C hapter I V ) .

Excise duties are levied on h ome made pr oducts -

.

Cust oms D uties (on imp o rted products )

B eer T he customs rate i s 6d per barrel (36 ga l lons )
. .

more than the excise duty Shown above .

Sp i ri ts On plain spirits an d als o on G eneva and

.
,

imitation rum the customs duties (imperi al preferenti al

,

rates ) are 5d per proo f ga llon m ore than the excise

.

duty on spiri ts On brandy and mm the excess above

.
,

the excise duty is 4d per proof gallon . .

This applies to spirits import ed in casks I f import ed .

in bottles an e xtra l s per proof gallon is charged

, . .

For spirits imported from c ountries not en titled to

imperi al preference rates the customs duties are 25 6d ,
. .

m ore th a n the latter rates

S weetened spirits l iqueurs and per fumed spirits pay
, ,

speci al rates of duty T hus on perfumed spirits im .

ported in cas k the preferenti al duty is 5 16 3 the bulk .

ga ll on (not the pr oof gallon ) and the full rate is ,

6 the b u l k gal lon .

C ert ain imported articles made from alcoh ol also pay

duties of customs as follows ,

C hl oral hydrate per lb

C hl orofo rm
.

Co ll odi o n g a ll o n .

E ther ace t ic
, lb .

bu tyric g all o n .

su lphu ri c
Ethyl bro mide 1b .

c h l oride gall o n .

i odide o u n
 M I SCE L L A NEOUS N OTES AN D STATI STI CS 10 9

Wi n e
With n ot mo re t h an 30

of proof
2s . 6d . 60 % of fu ll
rat e .

Wi th mo re t h an 30
b ut n ot m o re
than 42

of p r oof Spi rit 6s . 0d . of fu ll
rate .

I f the wine is import ed in bottle a dditi on al ful l ,

duties of 25 or 12s 6d per gall on accordi ng to wheth er

. . .
,

t h e wine is st ill or sp a r kl ing are also levi ed . .

The c orresponding pref eren ti al rates are I S and 85 9d . . .

per gal lon Th ese heavy addition a l duties are imposed

.

because t he Win es in q uestion are of cour se articl es of , ,

luxury p ar excell en ce .

sAmse r)
 A DDEN DUM
I
I D USTRIAL
N M ET H YL ATED S P I RITS USED F O R M A N U EA C T U R ES
AND O TH ER PU R PO SE S D U RING Y EARS ENDED 3 181 '
M ARC H , 192 0 ,

AND 192 1
Qu a n t i t ie s u sed
19 1920 gall on s
192 0
.

21

11

S P IRITS : N O N D UT I A E L E -
US E NDER FINANCE A CT 190 2
U ,

(Al coh ol ( 1) sp eci a lly den a t u r ed a n d (2) n ot de a t u red)

,
n

J Im p rt a i
o .

Y r
ea
en de d Use .

S l s t M ar .

1 920 At
r s and M f t a n u a c ure s
P roof g al ls . P mof g
a l ls. P roof ga lls . P r oof ga l ls .

S i ti ( U iv r iti
c en c n e s es ,
H pi t l
os t )
a s , e c. 23 179

192 1 Art d M f t
s an an u a c ure s
S i ti ( U i v iti
c en c n ers es ,
H pi t l e t )
os a s, c.

1 11
AL C OH OL D ISTI L L ED IN THE UNITED KI NGD O M
Year
3 l st

1 9 19
1920
l l2 ADDEN DUM

IV
A L CO HO L C O NS UMED I N T HE UNITED KI NGD O M
Ho me
m a de
I mp rt o e d.

Ye a r
.

l
M i li o n s o f P roo f
19 20 | 17 8 -
6 4 -
24 2 l
19 2 1
I 15 5 4 7 20 2
- -

PL AIN S P I RITS I M P O RTED

P roo f Gallo ns
C
.

ou ntry .

19 2 0 . 192 1 .

Un ited States
C a n ad a
N at l
a
O ther C ou ntri es
T O TAL

VI
R EVEN U E F R O M S P I RITS
Ye a r en de d 3 l s t M a rch
Du ty on ho me made spirits rai sed
-

1920 d u ring the year fro m 30 5 t o 50 3 . .

per proof gal l o n .

D u ty on ho me made spiri ts rai sed

-

19 2 1 d u ring the year fro m SOS t o 72s 6d . . .

per proo f gall o n .

 I N DEX
A n s or u r n al cohol prepara ti o n
, Al cohol dete ct i o n of 99
, ,

o f, 5 36 , fermentation benets ,

mmerci al 37 co fr o m rese ar ches u po n 3 ,

P harm aco po ei a 37 ,
impo rta n ce in ma n u fa c
A c etaldehyde a l co hol fro m 32 , , t u re o f chemi cal s a n d e x p l o
A ceti c ether d u ty on 10 8 , , si v e s , 2
(see a l so Ethyl aceta te ) materi al s u sed in man u
A cet one pro po rti o n in woo d
, fac t u re of 10 ,

n aphtha 93 power 6 7
prod u c ti o n o f 1 0 29
, ,

limits i n w ood n aphtha ,

u sed as a den at u ra nt 93 , servi c e of t o scien ce a n d

A cid s hydrochl o ri c (a s i nvert
, in d u stry 1 .

ing agent) 20 , syn theti c from cal ci u m ,

hydro uo ri c (in b u b ) 1 5 c arbide 32

fr o m co k e o ven
, ,

l ac ti c (in b u b ) 15 ,

su ccini c (fermentati o n ga s 32,

prod u c t ) 18 , yield o f fr o m vari o u s ,

s u lph u ri c (in b u b ) 15 ,
materi al s 26 28 , ,

(a s inverting agent) Al co ho l ometry 77 ,

20 Boyl e s hydro meter '

su lph u rou s (wood wa s te) , Bo yle s Bu bble

l l
79
' 3 )

29 early meth od s o f testin g

Adi aph orou s spi rit 96 , strengths 7778 ,

Al c oh ol (see a l so Ethyl al coh ol ) , Ga y L u ssa c s hydro '

abso l u te 36 , meter 89 ,

an a es theti cs fro m 2 , G erm a n sys tem 89 ,

an n u al prod u ct i on a n d G ilpin s t able s 82

'

co n su mpti o n in the U K Sike s s hydr o meter 80

10 4
. .
, , ,

10 6 87
a nn u al imports and ex t ables 88
p orts 10 6 10 7
,

spe ci c gravity tables

83
, ,

ann u al reven u e re ceipts 85

fro m spirits 10 7 , U S A s ys tem 89
. . .
,

beverages am ou nt of ,
Aldehyde fro m acetylene
, ,

ln 32
vari ou s spi ri ts 10 2 , Amyl al cohol 8 98 , ,

W ine s 10 2 aceta te 24 98
beers 10 3
, , ,

10 4, Amyl ase 14 ,

c ell ul ose su bs tan ce s Amyl o fermentat i on 2 O

0 l "

, as ,

sou r ce of 2 9 Ar ro wr oot 1 1
Arti ch ok es yi eld of al co hol
, ,

che mi cal signi can ce of , ,

term 7 , 28
1 14 I N DE X
B ARL EY 10 l l 12 26 28 , , , , ,
C ffey
o foreshots 26 ,
I .

Beers 10 3 ,
recti cation 2 4 ,

al co hol i c s t rength o f, re c tier 22 ,

"

10 3, 10 4 t ai l ings 2 6
l I .

Co k e o ven ga s a s so u rc e o f
,

, o rigin al gravity o f, 10 3 ,

10 4 al co hol 32
Co mpletely denatu red spi ri t 5 1
,

Beets su gar 2 6 28
Co mpou nded spirits 43
, , , ,

Beet su g ar j u i c e 10 18
C u sto ms d u ties on alcoholi c
, , ,

Blagden and G ilpin s ta bles '

, 82
B oy l e 9 5 96 , ,
beverage s e t c 10 8 1 0 9 ,
.
,

Bo yle s hydro meter 79

'

D ENAT
,

B ra ndy 4 3 ,
RANTS 50
U ,

Briti sh 43 , aceto ne oi l 5 1 ,

d u ty o n 10 8 ,
aniline oil 5 1 ,

seco nd ary c on st it u ents benzol 5 1 ,

4 3 98 ,
bo ne o il 5 1 ,

B rown H or ace , ,
4 c o al t ar o il 5 1 ,

B u b 15 , mineral n aphtha 5 1 ,

B u tyl al coh ol s 8 ,
petro le u m di still ates 5 1
B u tyri c ether (see a l so Ethyl pyridine 51 ,

bu tyr ate ) d u ty on 10 8 , ,
so lvent n apht ha 5 1 ,

w ood n apht ha 5 1
CA D ete ction o f ethyl al coho l 99
,

CI U M ac etate fr o m wood
L , ,

di still ati o n 9 2 o f methyl al co h ol 10 0

D extrose 14 18 20
, ,

c arbide al coh ol fr o m 32
Cal cu l ation s of al cohol 10 1 D i as tase 14 18 2 1
, , , , ,

Cane su gar 18 20 26 Dilu ted al cohols B R 38

, , , ,

Dimethyl aniline 93
, , , , ,

j u i c e 10 1 1
Dimethyl su lphate 94
-

Carbon dio xide 16 18

, , ,

Dis tillati o n 4 2 1
-

, , ,

c olle c ti o n a n d co nden sa , , ,

ti on 16 17 19 o f beer and wine 4

Cassa va l l (yield of al cohol ) Disti lleries prod u c tio n di verted
, , , ,

, , ,

28 t o w a r p u rp ose s 2
Cell Dou ble col u mn c o n t i n u o u 5
,

l se materi al s a s sou rc e o f
u o -

al co hol 2 9 , s till 2 6
,

ri c e s tr aw 3 1 ,
Dri n kwa t e r 82 ,

su lphite p u lp li q u or 30 ,
Du mas 95 ,

w ood w as te a n d sawd ust ,

29 E N U ME RATED spiri ts 4 3
C hampagne al h li s trengt h
,

, co o c , En zymes 14 18 , ,

10 2 amyl as e 14
Chl ral hydrate d ty 10 8
,

o -
u on di as tase 14 18 2 1
C hl r f rm d ty 10 8
, , , , ,

o o o , u on , invertase 2O ,

man fa t re f 6 2 u c u o m alta s e 18 2 1
C ider al h li strengt h 10 2
, , ,

, co o c ,
Ess en ce s 37 ,

d ty 10 7 u on Es senti al oil s (separati o n of

)
C ffey still 2 1 24
, ,

o ,
-
10 0
an alyser ,
22 Es ters in spiri ts , 4 3 4 4 46 , , ,
98
 I N DE X 1 15

Ether 6 2 , Fran ce ann u al pr od u c ti o n o f

,

Eth yl al co hol ,
boi ling point , al cohol 10 5 ,

37 c o n s u mpti o n of ind u s
c hemi cal co mpos i t ri al al co ho l in m an u fac t u re s ,

ti on , 8 57
fo rm u l a 8 , Fru its yield o f al c ohol fr o m
,

co ntrac ti o n with apples 28 ,

water , 39 apri co ts 2 8 ,

ethyl aceta te re ban an as 28 ,

ac ti o n for , 99 gra pes 28 .

i od o fo rm tes t 99 , pe ac he s 28 ,

a s so lvent 7 , pe ars 2 8 ,

spe ci c gr avity 37 , water mel o n s 28 ,

Ethyl acetate (see al so A ceti c Fu sel oil 18 2 4 98 , , ,

eth er) in ru m 46 , , amyl ac et ate fro m

Ethyl bro mide d u ty on 1 0 8 , ,
24
man u fac tu re 6 2 , ell u l oid varni shes c
Ethyl bu tyrate (see a l so B u ty prepared wi th 24 ,

r i c ether ) in ru m 4 6 , , d ope prepared ,

Eth yl c hl o ride d u ty on 10 8 , ,
with 2 4 ,

man u fact u re 6 2 ,
fe i nts 2 4 ,

Ethylene al coh ol fro m 33 , higher al cohol s in ,

Ethyl formate in r u m 4 6 , , 8 9
,

Ethyl i odide d u ty on 10 8 , , leath er su bstit u tes

Ethyl su lph u ri c aci d al coho l , prepared with 2 4 ,

fro m 33 ,

E x ci se d u ti es o n spiri ts 10 7 ,
Ga y L u ssac , 82
10 8 L u ssa c s
'
hydro meter ,
89
Expo rt s o f spi rit s , 10 7 G eneva d u ty o n 10 8 (see al so
, ,

Gin )
FACTO RS (al coh ol cal cu l ati on s) ,
G ermany ind u stri al al cohol
,

10 1 co n s u mpti o n 58 ,

r
F a a da y , 33 sys tem o f al cohol o metry ,

Fe rmen ta ti on , 15 89
amyl o ,

20 G ilpin a n d Bl agden s table s

at t e mp er a t ors, 1 6 82
b u b , 15 G i n (see a l so G eneva) ma n u ,

growth o f yeas t 18 ,
fac t u re 44 ,

m u co rs (mo u ld s) 2 1 , stil l 45 ,

P as te u r s rese arc he s 3 G l u co se 10
'
, ,

se creti o n o f enzyme s 1 8 ,
G lyc erin a s ferment a ti o n p r o
,
.

sou ring 1 5 , d u c t 18 ,

the ory o f the proce ss o f G rain 1 1 20

, ,

16 Spirits 12 ,

Fini sh 59 , G rass tree y ield of al co h ol 28 , ,

F or d H en ry 3 1
, ,

Formaldehyde 93 , R en n el l , 33
fo rmal in 9 3 ,
H igher al cohol s , 96
1 16 I N DE X
H igher al co h ol s fermen tat ion
,
M altase , 18 2 1 ,

prod u cts , 96 M altose , 14

in brandy ru m and M as hing l l
whis ky ker
, ,

,
9 798 c oo or co nverter 12
particu l ars of vari dextrin s 14 ,

97
o u s, goods 12 ,

H ux l ey 1 ,
gri st l 2 ,

H ydro meters Bo yle s 79 ,

'

,
li q uor 1 2 ,

G a y L u ssa c s 89
'
ma l t ode x t r i n s , 14
'
S i ke s s 80 87 , ,
mash , 11
t u n , 12 13
I MMAT
,

RE spirits 4 1
U ,
sa c c h a r ica t i on o f , 12
legal pro vi sio n re s weet mas h 14 ,

s pe c t i ng 4 1 ,
theory of proc e ss 14 ,

rebate o f d u ty on wo rt 14 ,

medi cin al spirits 4 1 M ateri al s u sed in prod u c ti o n o f

I nd ustri al al cohol 49
,

al co h o l
2 9
,

den at u rants 50 5 1 ,
-
c ell u l ose ma teri al s 31 ,

v arie t ies s t a r ch ma teri al s 10 1 1 , , ,

al cohol n ot den atu red 54 ,

26 ,
28
spe ci ally den at u red 53 ,
s gar materi al s
u , 18 2 0 , 2 6 ,
,

p artly den at u red (i n 28

d u st ri a l methyl a ted spirit )
l l
s yn the t i c 9'
al coh ol , 32
5 1 52 ,
35
mpletely den at u red
co M en del e 82 ,

( minerali zed methyl ated M ethyl al h l

co o , 9 1
spiri t ) 51 52 , ,
a d aph rou s spirit
i o ,

power al coh ol 6 7 , 96
stati s ti cs of u se i n boiling point 9 4 ,

Fran ce 57 ,
co mpo siti o n a nd
G erm any 58 fo rm u l a 8
U nited Kingd o m 56
, ,

,
co o l ni al spiri ts ,

methyl ated spirit (see 93

M e thyl ated spirit ) C o lu mbian
I nvertas e 2O spirits 93
I nvert su ga r 20
, ,

derivat i ve s in dye
I odofo rm test for ethyl al cohol ma king
,

, , 94
99 dete c t io n methyl
Is
,

o bu tyl al cohol , 98 fo rmate te st 10 0 ,

formi c acid
L m v u r o s a 20 , tes t 10 6
,

L i q u e u rs , 1 0 8 a v o u r i n g s and
perf u me s from 94 ,

M ACR O" AMIA (" a mi a palm) ,

fo rm alin ma n u fa c
yield of al co hol 28 ,
t u re (formaldehyde sol u
M ah u a o wers 28 ti o n ) 93
M ai ze 1 0 1 1 12 26 28
, ,

, , , , , poison i ng fro m 95 ,

M al t 1 1 12
, , prod u ct i o n 9 1 92 ,
-
 I N DE X 117

M ethyl al co hol spe ci c gra vity , , M ethylated s piritcou ld .

94 q u a ntities u sed in v ari o u s

s ta nd ard wood man u fa ctu res in the
spiri ts U K 56
"
, 93 57 . .
,

,
val u e as de n a t u r res tri c ti on s o n a n d regu ,

ant 51 l a t i o n s fo r u se , 53
inerali zed methylated
, ,

woo d n aphth a , 5 1, (2) M

93 spirit
M ethyl ated spiri t 52 ,
co mposi ti o n 52 ,

( 1) ind u stri al methyl ated regu l ati o n s for a n d re ,

spirit 52 , s tri c ti o n s o n i t s sale ,

appli ca ti on o f in the , an d u se , 52
foll owing m a n u fa c thermal val u e 73
t u re s M ethyl benzoate Ni o be oil ,
D

al kal oid s
,

and ne 94
c hemi cal s 63 , forma te 10 0 ,

ani line dyes 65 ,

sa li c yl ate (a rti c ial oi l o f
arti cial owers 6 5 winter green ) 94 10 0
sil k 6 5
, , ,

, M illet 10 ,

cell u l o id xyl o nite e t c , , .

, M ol asse s 10 1 1 18 2 0 26 28
, , , , , ,

60 M ou l t on , L or d, 1
c hl oro form 6 2 , M u co rs (mou ld s) , 21
dyeing and cle aning 6 5 , M u s tard ga s 6 1 ,

embro ca ti on s a n d l ini
ments 64 , N a r a u r a 70 ,

ether 6 2 , N i obe oi l D

(methyl ben
ethyl chl oride and e thyl zoa t e ) , 94
br o mide 6 2 ,

felt ha ts 60 , Oa r s , 12 2 6 ,

n i sh 59 , Oen anthi c e ster in brandy 4 4 ,

hai r was he s 64 , Oil of W i ntergreen (methyl

in ca ndes c ent m an t les , sali cylate ) 94 ,

62 O rigin al gr a vity 10 3 ,

ph oto gr aphi c p 1a te8 ,

et c .
, 65 P L A M sa p 10 , 1 1 ,

powders fu lmi n ates an d , , P artly den at red al h ol 5 1

u co ,

o ther expl osive s 6 0 , P a s teu rfermenta ti n st u die s 3

, o ,

s hip s co mpasses 6 5 atent s till s 2 124

'
P
soap ma king 6 1
, ,

, P ear e sen e
s c , 98

sol id medi ci n al ext rac ts , P ligot 9 5 ,

63 P ep y s 79 ,

s t ai n s pai n ts a n d , , P i la n s p r t
i i or pl a n British
i
en amel s 6 0 , spirit 37 ,

steel pens 6 5 , p u rpo se s t o whi c h appli ed ,

su rgi cal dre ssi ngs 64 , 3738

varni sh pol ish a n d l a c , , q u a ntitie s
imp orted , 10 6
q u er 59 , spe ci c gra vity 37 ,

co mp o si t i o n 52 , strength 37 ,
1 18 I N DE X
P o l ari meter 20 Sa c a nr mc a r ro u of the mash
z
, ,

P o l ari ed light 20 , 12
P o ta t oe s 10 ll 12 , , , , 18 ,
26 ,
Sacc har i meter 2O ,

28 Sawd u st 29 ,

P o t s till s 4 4 , Sodi u m su lphi te (glycerin fer

P o wer al co h o l 6 7 ,
menta ti o n proce ss) 18 ,

c arbu retted al coho l So rghu m grain s yield o f ,

71 al coh o l 28
s tal ks yi eld o f al cohol
,

mpari son with co , ,

petro l a s mo tor fu el 68 , 28
co mp ari so n wi t h Spe ci ally den atu red al co hol ,

o ther fu el s 70 , 53
co n cl u si o n s o f co m Spec i c gra vity 4 ,

mi t t ee on al co hol m ot or ta bles 83 8 5 ,

fu el 76 , Spiri t of wi ne 39 ,

engi ne req u i re Spirits co mpou nded 43

, ,

ment s fo r ef cien c y 6 9 , en u merated 4 3 ,

fo rm ul a appro ved , gr ai n 1 2 ,

74 immatu re 4 1 ,

n a t a li t e , 70 methyl ated 52 ,

re q uirements for pl ain 37 ,

effe c tive mixt u res o f al cohol po wer 6 7 ,

and li q u id hydrocarbo ns , u nen u mera ted 4 3 ,

71 Spiritu ou s beverages 43 ,

sou r ces o f 75 76 ,
-
al coho li c s trengt hs ,

therma l val u e o f 10 1, 1 0 3
mi nerali zed m e t h y l a t e d Sp irit u s Vi ni R e ct ic a t u s
spirit 73 , 38
P r oo f spirit 4 0 , Starch content o f cerea l s and
-

co mposi ti o n 40 , malt s u sed in dist illing

legal denition o f , , ind u stry 1 1 ,

40

Sta rch material s u sed in di s ,

ver proo f 4 0 o , t i lling 10 ,

u nder pr oo f 4O
"
Still s Co e y 2 124
wo r king
, , ,

U S A proo f 4 0 . . .
, ,c o n t i n u o u s

P ro pyl al co h ol 8 9 d o u ble col u mn 26

P y kn o meters 6
, , ,

, triple col u mn
P yr ol i q u e o u s aci d 9 1 , 27
patent 2 1 24
R E CTI FIED spirit 38
-
,

p ot 44
S u crose (see Ca ne su gar )
, ,

Refrac tometer 90 ,

Reven u e fro m spiri ts , 10 6 Su gar materi al s u sed in dis

Ri ce 10 1 1 26
, , , t hn g , 10
s traw 3 1 , beets 26 ,

R u m 44 , wo rts 18 ,

arti ci al or i mi tation 46 , S u lphi te p ulp li q uor 30 ,

c u st o m s d u tie s on 10 8 , S u lpho nal 54 ,

Rye , 10 , 1 1, 12 26 , Su lph ur m on ochl ori de 6 1 ,

 mn a x 1 19

Syntheti c al coh ol fro m ca l , Whis k e nd ary pr od u cts

s co ,

ci u m carbide 3 2 46 8
fro m co ke o ven gas
, ,

Wi ne al coh o li c st rengt hs o f
vari o u s kind s 10 1
, ,

32 ,

a s so u rc e o f al co h o l 10
T AB
,

ES spe ci c gra vities

L , , c u st o m s d u ties 10 9 ,

al co h oli c strengths 83 5 ,
-
Woo d spirit (see M ethyl al co hol )
Si kes

88
s, n aphtha 5 1 93
Tin
, ,

c ut res , 37 , 4 1 Wood wast e 29 ,

T ra l l e s ,
82 Wo rt 14 ,

61
T riple co u l mn co nti n u ou s st i ll , X ANT H O RR H O EA (grass tree ) ,

27 yield o f al cohol 2 8 ,

W AS H 15 , Y EAST (see a l so Fermentation ) ,

Wheat 1 1 28 early theory c on cerning 3

Whis ky 46
, , ,

, growth o f 16 ,

Bo u rbo n 48 Yield of al cohol fro m vari o u s

I ris h 46 4 8
,

, , materi al s 26 28 , ,

patent s till 46 -
,

p o t s ti ll 46 4 8 " AMIA palm yield of al cohol 28

-

, , , ,

Scot ch 46 48 , , " ym as e 18 2 1, ,

r
P in t ed i n Ba t h En gla n d, by S ir I saac P uma n e Son s. L t d
, .
 A L I ST O F BOO K S
I SH D BY P UB L E

S ir I s a a c P it m a n & So n s L t d , .

(I n c or
p or a t i n g WH I T T A K ER ( e co ) .

P A R K ER ST R E ET , K I N GS WA Y,
O ND ON WC 2 L , . .

T he prices given a pply only t o th e B riti sh I sl es , a n d a re

s u bj ec t t o al tera ti o n with ou t n ot i ce .

A comp l e e t
Catal og ue gi v ing fu ll detail s of t he fouowing
books will be sen t p ost free on a p p li cati on .

AL L P R I CE S A R E N E T .

3.d .

A CC U M UL AT O RS M ANAGEMENT ,
Sir D S al om ons . 7 6
AERO FO I L S AND R ESISTANCE OF A ER OD Y N A H I C
BO DIES P R O P ERTIES O F A W J u dge
, . . . 18 O
A ERO NA UTICAL DESIGN AND CO NSTRUCTI O N ,

E L EMENTARY P RINCI P L ES OP A W J u dge . . . 7 G

AE R O N A UT I cs E L EMENTARY A P
,
Th ur st o n . . . . 8
AER O NA UTICAL E NGINEERING T E XT B OOK O F A -

Klemi n
. .
,

15 O
A ERO P L ANES D ESIGN OF A W J u dge
, . . . l4 O
A ERO P L A N E S TR UCT U RAL D ESIGN T H J o nes . . .

a n d J D F rier
. . 21
AE R O P L AN Es AND AI R S H rPs W E Dommet t 1 0
AIRCRA FT AND A UTO M O B I L E M ATERIAL SFERR O US
. . .

A W J u dge 25 0
A IRCRA FT AND A UT O M O B I L E M ATE RIAL SN ON
. .

FERR O US AND O RGA N I C A W J u dge . . . 25 O

A IRCRAF T D ICTI O NARY O P W E Dommet t
, . . . 2 O
AL IGNMENT CH ARTS E S Andrews . . . 2 C
A L TERN AT I NG C U RRENT M AC H INERY D ESIGN OF , .

Ar ch iba ld 30 O
A L TERNATING C U RRENT M ACH INERY , P A PE RS ON
T H E D ESIGN OP C C H aw kins 8 P Smith a n d
. . .
, . .

S Neville
. 21 0
A L TERNATING C U RRENT W O RE W P err en M a yoock 10 6

-
. .

E 8
 3 . d .

A RC H ITECTU RAL H YG I ENE B F a n d H P Flet cher . . 10 6

A RI T H METIC o r A L TERNATI NG C U RRENTS
. . .

E H
Crapper
. . .

4 6
A RITH METIC OF E L ECTRIC AL E NG I NEERING Whi t
ta ker s
.

3 6
'

A RIT H METIC OF T E L EGRA PH Y TE L E P H O NY .

T E H erbert a n d R G de W ardt 5 0
A RMAT U RE CO NSTR UCTI ON
. . . . .

H M H oba r t a n d . . .

A G E l lis 25 0
A RTI F ICIAL S I L E AND I T s M AN UF ACT U RE J
. .

T ranslated by S Woo dhou se

. .

F o l t ze r . . 21 0
A STR O N O MERS G REAT Si r R Ba ll ,
. . 7 6
A STRO N O MY FOR E VERYB OD Y P rof S N ewco mbe . . . 6
ASTR O N O MY FOR G ENERA L R EAD ERS G F
Chamber s
. . .

4 0
A U T O M O B I L E A N D A IRCRA FT E NGINES A W J u dge 30 0
A UTO M O B I L E I GNITI O N AND V AL VE T IMING S TART
. . .

.
,

I N C AND L IG H TING J B R athbu n . . . 8 O

B A UD OT P RINTING T E L EGRA P H S YSTEM H W . . .

P n d ry
e 6 0
B L UE P RINTING A N D M O DERN P L AN C OP YI NG .

B J H all 6 0
B RE W ING AND M A L TING J R oss M ac k enzie
. .

. . 8 6
CA B INET M A K IN G A RT AND C RA FT OF D D en ni ng
-

, . . 7 6
CA L C UL U S F O R E NGINEERING S TUDENTS J St oney . . 3 6
CAR P ENTRY AND J O I NERY B F a n d H P Fletcher . . . . . 10 6
C ERAMIC I ND USTRIES P OC KET B OOK A B Se arle . . . 8 6
CH EMICAL E NGINEERING I NTROD UCTI O N T o A P ,
. . .

Allen 10 6
C H EMISTRY A FIRST BO O K OF A C ou lth ard
, . . 4 6
C OA L M INING M O DERN P RACTICE OF Kerr a n d
, .

B u rn s P art 1 5/ P arts 2 3 a n d 4 eac h 6 0

C OL O U R IN W OVEN D ESIGN : A T REATISE ON
.
, , ,

T EX TI L E C O L O U RING R Bea u mont 21 0

C O M P RESSED A I R P O W ER A W a n d " W Da w
. .

21 0
CO NTIN UOUS C U RRENT D YNAM O DESIGN E L EMEN
. . . . .

TARY P RINCI P L ES O F H M H obart 10 6

CONTIN UO US C URRENT M O TO RS AND CONTROL A P
. . .

P ARAT US W P erren M ay cock 7 6

DETAI L DESIGN OF M A RINE S CRE W P R OP E L L ERS
. .

D H J ac kso n
.

. . 6 0
 o d
D IR CT C RRENT
.

E U E L ECTRICAL E NG INEERING .
J .

R B rr a 15 0
DIRECT C RREN
.

U T EL ECTRICAL E NGINEERING T H E ,

EL EMENTS OF . H F T re w ma n a n d G E
. . . .

Co n di e 7 6
D IVING M AN A AND HAND B K S B MA RINE U L OO OF U
A ANCES R 11 Davi
P PL I . . . s 7 6
D RA W ING AND D SIGNING C G L el nd E . . . a 3 6
D RA W ING M A N A I NST CTI N S Barter
, U L R U O . . 4 0
D RESS B SE AND C ST ME C D ESIGN
L OU O U L OT H s ,
FA B RIC M AN F ACT RE
, ,

AND R U U OF . .

Be m nt au o 42 0
D YNAM H w M ANAGE O, A R B tt ne
o To T HE o o 2 0
DYNAM T E RY D SIGN AND M AN F ACT RE
. . .

O : ITs H O E U U
C C Haw kin s V l I
, ,

TH E . . . . o . 21 0
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, , . . .

S R B ot t one
. . 6 0
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Bo tt one 3 6
E L ECTRIC C IRC U IT T H EO RY AND C A L CUL A TI O NS .

W P erren M aycock
. 10 6
EL ECTRIC G UI D ES H A W KI NS 10 v o l u mes ea ch ,

. 5 0
EL ECTRIC M INING M ACH INERY S F Wal ker
,

. . . 15 0
E L ECTRIC M OT O RS AND CO NTROL S YSTE MS A T
Dover
. . .

18 0
E L ECTRIC M OTO RSCO NTI N UO U S P OL Y P H ASE A N D ,

S ING L E P H ASE M OTO RS H M H oba rt

-
. . .

E L ECTR IC M OT O RS A S MA L L B OO K ON AND
W P erren M aycock
, .

A O
. . . 6 0
E L ECTRIC L IGH TI NG AND P O W ER D ISTRI B UTI O N
V OI I W P erren M a y cock
.

. . . 10 6
E L ECTRIC L IG H TI NG AND P O W ER D ISTRIB UTI O N

V ol II W P erren M aycoc k
.

. . . 10 6
EL ECTRIC L IG H TING IN T H E H O ME L C a s t er . . 6
E L ECTRIC L IGH TING I N FACTO RIES L G aster a n d . .

J 8 Dow
.
6
E L ECTRIC T R ACTI ON A T Dover
.

. . . 21 0
EL E CTRIC W IRING FITTINGS S W ITC H ES AND L A MP S
W P erren M aycock
, , .

. 10 6
 I

E L ECTRIC W IRIN G D I AGRA MS W P err en M a ycock

. "

5 c
E L ECTRIC W IR I NG T A B L ES W P e rren M aycock
. .

5 c
E L ECTR ICA E NGINEERS P OC KET BOO K Whit
. .

'
'

taker s
.

:
10
'
0

E L ECTRICA L I NSTR UM ENTS I N T H E O RY AN D P R A C

TICE M urd och a n d O sch wa l d
. 12 3

E L ECT RICA L M AC H INES P RACTICAL T ESTI NG OF ,

.

L O ult o n a n d N
.
J Wi l so n . .
6
EL ECTRICAL T RANSMISSI O N O F P H O TO GRAP H S M J . . .

6
E L ECTRICITY AND M AGNETISM FIRST B O O K O F W
P erren M a ycoc k
. .
,

6
EL ECTRO M OTO RS : H ow M ADE AND H o w USED .

S R Bo ttone
. . 4 o
E L ECT R o P L ATERS H AND B O O K G E Bo nney o
'
-
. . . 5
EL ECTRO T EC H NICS EL EMENTS OF A P Y oun g
-
, . . . 7 G
E NGIN EER DR A UG HT S M E N S W O R K : H INTS T O B E

G I NNERS IN DR A m O FF ICES . 2 a
E NGINEERING S CIENCE P RIMER OF E S A ndrews
P a rt 1 33 I P art 2 2s 6d ; Co mplete
. . . .
,

, .
, . . 4 O
E NGINEERING W O R K SH OP EX ERCISES E P ull 3 G
E NGIN EERS AND E RECTO RS P O C K ET D ICTI O NARY
. .

E NG L IS H G ERMAN D UTC H W H S t e e n b ee k
, , . . . 2 0
E NG L IS H F OR T ECH NICAL S TUD ENTS F F P otter . . . . 2 0
EXP E RIMENTA L M ATH EMATICS G R Vin e
B ook I with Ans wer s
. . .

l
II with An swer s
,

,
1
Ex p L O S IV E s H IST O RICA L P A P ERS O N M O DERN
, G . .

W M a cDon al d 9
Ex p L O S I V ES I ND U STRY R ISE AN D P ROGRESS O F
.

T H E B RITIS H 18
FIE L D M AN UAL OF SU RVE Y M ETH OD S AND OP E RA
TI O NS A L o vat Hi ggi ns
. . 21
FIE L D WO R K F O R S C HOOL S E H H arri so n an d . . .

C A H u nter
. .
FIL ES AND R U NG F remont an d Tayl or
FITT I NG P RINCIP L ES OF
, J G H orner
m FIGU RE L O GARITH MS W E Dommet t
FL Ax C UL TU RE AN D P RE P ARATI O N
0
. 0
. . . 6
6
. . .

F Bradbur y . . 6
FUSE L AGE D ESIGN A W J u dge . . . 0
G AS G ASOL ENE AN D OI L E NGINES
, J B R at hbu n . . . 0
 s 3
T R UB ES AND I NSTA L L ATI O NS
.

G AS ENGINE O L .
J .

B Ra t hb un
. 8 o
G AS AND OI L E NG I NE O P ERATI O N J Okill . . 5 c
G AS, O IL AND P ETR OL E NGINES : INC L UD I NG
,

S U CTIO N G A S P L ANT AND H U M P H REY P UM P S .

A Ga rr ard
. 6 o
G AS S UP P L Y IN P RI NCI P L ES AND P RACTICE W . .

H Y Webber
. . 4 e
G E O METRY T H E EL EMENTS O F P RA CTICAL P L ANE
, .

P W Sco tt 5 O
A J J u k e s Br o wne
. .

G E O L OGY E L EMENTARY
, . .
-
3 C
G ERMAN G RA MMAR F O R S CIENCE S TU D ENTS W . .

A O sb or ne o
G R AP H IC S T A T I c s E L EMENTARY J T Wight
, . . . c
H AN D RAIL IN G F O R G E O METRICAL S TA I RCASES W . .

A S cott
. N o
H EAT L IG H T AND S O UND J R Ashworth N
a

, . . . c

H IG H HEA V E N s IN T H E Sir R Ball

, . . . 1O a
H O SIERY M AN U FACT U RE W D avi s . .
O
C c
H YD RA U L IC M OT O RS AND T U R B IN ES G R . . .

Bo dmer 15 c
I L L U M INANTS AND I L L U MINATING E NGIN EERIN G ,

M O DERN Do w a n d C a st er
. 25 o
I ND ICATO R H AND B OO K C N P i ckwort h . . . 7 a
I ND UCTI O N CO I L S G E B onney . . . 6 c
I ND UCTI O N COIL TH E O RY OF T H E E Taylor J ones
, . .
-
12
a
c

I NSUL ATI ON OF E L ECTRIC M ACH IN ES H W

T ur ner a n d H M H obart
. . .

. . 21 9
I ONI C VAL VE GUI D E T o ST UDY OF T HE W D
, . . .

Owen
:
2 C
I R ON F O UN D IN G P RACTICA L J G H orner . . . 10
L EATH ER W O R K C G L ela nd 5 0
L E K T R I K L IG H TING C O NNECTI O NS
. . .

W P erren
M aycock
. .

1 0
L ENS W O R K F OR A MATE U RS H Orford
5
. . 3 0

L IG H TN ING CO ND U CT O RS AND L IG H TN ING G UARD S .

Sir O L odge
. 15 O
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S AFE L OADS ON S TEE L P I L L ARS TA BL ES OF E S , . . .

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SO I L SCIENCE OF T H E C Warrell
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S TARRY R EAL MS I N Sir R Bal l , . . 10 6
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UNI O N TE X TI L E FA B RICATI O N R Bea u mont 21 . .

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WOO D BL O C K P RINTI NG F M orley Fletcher
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P A R KE R S T R EE T , K I N G SWA Y W C 2 , . .
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