The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1906-11-09
CHEAP POWER

Government About to Is
sue New Alcohol Book
from Washington.
Unce Sam g Alcohol Book, which is
on the point of being issued. seems
destined to prove the most popular
Government publication of the year
Judging from the immense mum ber Of
advance applications for it already re-
ceived. The 100, 900 copies printed as
a & irst edition will go off like hot
cakes, scarce beginning to satisfy the
demand.
It is to be issued as a farmers
bulletin" presumably because the
farmers are more keenly interested in
the matter than anybody else. And
no wonder. lnasmuch as free alcohol.
although Of much prospective useful
ness for various mechanical purposes
in cities, and likely to give important
encouragement to many arts. promises
to be veritable blessing in psrts of
the country where coal, kerosene, and
other materials available for fuel and
lighting are difficult to obtain.
Free alcohol, however, is expected
not only to warm the farmers dwell
ing in winter and make his evenings
cheerful by the illumination it af-
fords. but also to relieve him from
much of his labor by furnishing pow
er. Both his house and his barn will
be literally and inexpensively supplied
with ranning water by small motor
actuating pump; and another little
enigne, likewise driven by alcohol, will
operate a machine for chopping and
grinding his cattle-food.
In various other ways alcohol will
make itself useful as sourse of read
lily available energy on the farm; and,
not imp1obably, it may be employed
even to milk the cows, inasmuch as
the problem of performing that task
by mechanical means has been satis-
factorily solved.
For example. one cannot pour alco-
hol into the tank Of q gasoline auto:
mobile and expect the car ito travel,
To avoltalize the auidrapidly enough
for motor purposes there is required
nearly twice the heat demanded by
gasoline; and, consequently, moaifi-
cation ia needed in the construction of
the enigne. But it is not of much
importance, involving only a change
in the form of the explosion cham Der.
stAlcohol,' says the forcomming bull
letin, s'burns with pale tlue flame
that is intensely hot. There is no
smoke, and what odor there is cannot
be termed offensive. To give the fame
illuminating power mantle must be
used. As for heating stoves in which
alcohol is employed, there are several
different kinds already in use. in
cluding apparatus for roasting coffee
or peanuts and for heating crimp-
irons One may buy today in the
hardware shops self heating flatiron
which contains small alcohol lamp.
When certain earths, such as
s'thoria, are reduced to a fine pow
der and subjected to high heat. they
glow brilliantly with an intense white
light. Taking advantage of this fact. !.
resort is had to the expedient Of de-
posting the thoria in such way
upon white cloth that. when the
cloth has been burned away the
mantle made OF it preserves it's shape.
II placed over gas fame in the
familiar manner the manner becomes
brightly incandesent; but the same
thing happens when the fame is
FURNISHED by alcohol.
Now, although the new law which
removes the tax Of two dollars and
twenty cents gallon from alcohol
used for industrial and domestic
purposes, goes into effect on the
first day of the coming year. the
Government authorities, oddly enough
have not yet been able to decide
what substance shall be employed to
ssdenaturize the stuff-that is to say
to render it unarinkabl1. It is a
difficult question. indeed. because
many ingredients that might be added
would render the product impossible
for utilization in certain important
arts. For example, if wood alcohol is
chosen, the tax-fee material cannot be
turned to account in the compromising
+ Of pharmaceutical preparations
It is the tresuary, and not the de-
partment Of Agricultural, that con-
trolls all affairs relating to industrial
alcohol. The Commissioners Of Inter-
nal Revenue, MI. Yerkes is general
manager, and whatever he says is the
law. He will even determine what
shall be the minimum size Of the still
Rx,,, - 80 K I,x, ~, y, NO n