The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-01


titled From Waste Saccharine
Matter Mt Small Cost-The Car
burant Gives Out a Light of Great
Intensity and Beauty - It's Inn
mense Possibilities.
PARIS, April 20.-Alcohol Is about to
supersede petroleum, not only in France,
but all Europe. 1t Is not only to super
sede petroleum. but 1t promises to take
the place Of coal itself.
Houses are to be heated by alcohol, and
engines are to be driven by alcohol AS
Tor alcohol lighting, it is already an ac-
complished fact. The Emperor of Ger
many has had the palace at Potsdam and
the Thiergarten at Berlin supplied with
1ncandescent alcohol lamps, while the
new French president, Loubet, is lighting
up the courtyard of the E1ysee with these
same extraordinary novelties of the hour.
Both the agricultural and industrial
worlds are excited over this matter.
Chambers of commerce and farmers
clubs are hearing lectures on the new dis
coveries. Never, perhaps, has such i'm
portant fiscal legislation been accom-
plished in both France and Germany in SO
short time as that--almost secured
Which is to take off the last tax and OBJ
struction from the free manufacture and
sale of industrial alcohols The disti!ler
is at last to work for the good of human
ity. His frieno, the farmer, is at last to
go to get share Of the good things of
progress.
The significance of this new movement
to the world at large is concealed, so to
speak, In the peculiar legislation which
is everywhere applied tc alcohol. All the
discoveries and inventions imaginable
must lie helpless until the iron heel of
the internal revenue tax is removed from
this peculiar product. Alcohol is not dear
in itself M. G. AracheQuesne secretary
general Of the new Association pour rEm-
plot Industriel de pAlcool-the great
league Of distillers which in France is
engineering the affair-has just been tell
ing me that a few years ago in CUBA he
made alcohol out of refuse molasses at
an expense of less thar francs the 100
Hters AS liter is more than a quart,
this would amount to 61a cents a gallon.
It was only done as an experiment, part
ly to find out what to do with the waste
molasses. The alcohol could not be ex-
ported III sufficient quantities to other
countries because of the taxes
1t is the same in Louisiana" said M.
Arachequesne, where the refuse mo-
lasses is dumped into the seal and you
can imagine something of the condition
of France and Germany-two countries
which have<no petroleum of their own
by casting a glance at the dilemma of
the beet sugar agriculturists of Cal
fornia, Nebraska and Utah, forced to
burn their waste molasses at an actual
expense. There Is no other way to get
rid of a superfiuity which can not be
simply thrown away for fear of creating
nuisance. In all these states,'' con-
tinued M. Arachequesne, where they
have tried beet sugar raising successful
ly or unsuccessfully, Kansas, Minnesota
California, Nebraska. Utah, Colorado and
Virginia, it is hardship to the farmer
that he is not allowed to distil indus
trial alcohol from this waste material
But if this is a hardship, how much
greater-in view of these new inventions
and discoveries-mus be the lot of the
American farmer, with millions of bush
els of IndiaIl corn that he often finds i'm
possible to sell?''
The conclusion of this expert is that
sooner or later the United States must
fall in line with the new European Iegis-
lation.
France, country utterly without pc
troleum and importing coal enormously
sees nothing less than her agricultural
salvation in the new use of alcohol For
years they have beer seeking in vain for
the national light and the national
fuel" For years, on the other hand the
farmers nave been struggling sullenly
against the internal revenue laws. From
beet root. from potatoes and from divers
other products they have sought to gain
a profit, which they think ought to be
theirs. All France may be compared to
1T
at immense expense, where frauds ani
understandings take the place of violent
resistance of authority. The French
farmer knows all about alcohol. lie
wants to be his own distiler. He wants
to make a Gouble profit on bis products.
to have winter work for his sons, his
daughters and his hired help For long
years the result has been gradual let
ting down of barriers against alcoholic
drinks in France, until today, in Paris.
you can have g satisfying slug of. alb
Sinthe for &C.
One of the chief factors in the new use
of alcohol, and there are many will I'M
doubtedly turn out TO. be "carburant,"
new discovery. AS everybody knows
alcohol when burning disengages heat
rather that light. 1t burns dull blue
The carburant gives out a light of great
intensity and beauty. At the same time
1t is said that 1t has the quality of obviat-
every danger of explosion. 1t is this later
virture that is to make carburated alcohol
safe, odorless, clean, economical and
energetic fuel and motive power sub
stance. When the carburant is added to
the ordinary industrial or methylated al
cohol it changes it's color, which in
France is green to dark yellow
The lamps resemble ordinary petroleum
lamps with wicks and chimneys. Were
1t not for the softness and brilliancy of
the light, you might imagine you were
burning headlight oil. There is no sweat
ing, no smoke or odor, either during or
after combustion, and the lighting is in
Simultaneous.
In Paris by far the greatest sensation
has been made by the incandescent
lamps; with which M Loubet is now
lighting up the court yard of the Elysee
1t is the same incandescent system that
is used at Potsdam and In the Berlin
Thiergarten. Indeed, the rush for mean
descent burner patents is a phenomenon
of the hour In every European country.
There are incandescent alcohol burners
with wicks and without wicks, with
chimneys and without. All have two
points in common with each other and
with the gas burners of certain type-the
extraordinarily brilliant light and the ex-
traordinary fragility of the manchon, or
film. There is not the slightest doubt of
their successful application to alcohol.
Those incandescent burners need no
carburant to be mixed with their alcohol
They burn by generating gas.
The interesting matter, after all, has
not to do with details at the present mo-
ment, when chemists and inventors are
on the point of undoing each others
work daily. The comparative prices of
alcohol and petroleum and alcohol in
Paris will say very little to Americans,
even to those who export petroleum. This
movement Is now under way in France
Nothing can sion its onward march No