The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-25

|cohol zoo pounds has been passed, iand in Germany research work is be- ing conducted with engines using a |stlll higher compression. The igni |tion temperature in alcohol engines
 can be controlled by adding water to
 the spirit, the resulting mixture being
 perfectly homogeneous. Greater vari- |ation in richness of mixture is possi-
 ble. A mixture containing anything
 between four and thirteen per cent. |of alcohol vapor will explode, but for petrol the limits are two and five per cent, and any excess of vapor gives a |smoiSy combustion and exhaust. The |alcohol engine is therefore more rella-
 ble and possesses greater flexibility, although of course, this property lays it open to being run at an efficiency which is below normal.
 As regards consumption, German engines made by the Otto company take on an average one pint of ninety |three per cent alcohol per horsepower hour, representing thermal efficiency of nearly thirty per cent. Some reach as highr as thirtyvfive per cent, and an engine designed by Professor May CT is stated to have a thermal efficien- cy of thirty-nine and a half per cent. Alcohol requires less air for combus- ton, and the cylinders may be made of smaller diameter on this account. A good working speed is 800 to 300 rev.
 olutions per minute, but a speed of l. |, knoy1 caftefn at attained. The German firms have not
 taken up the building of alcohol en-
 zines for motor work, for their best customers for car engines are in Bri-
 tain, where petrol is almost universal ly in use. The British firms have their hands tied by the excise duties and even experimental work is hind cred
 A matter of great importance when
 alcohol is to be used in an explosion
 engine is the constitution of the de- maturing agent employed to render
 the spirit unfit for drinking purposes.
 The denaturant should pass away in the exhaust gases without depositing soot or corroding the metal, and it Is desirable that It should increase the heat energy of the fuel. In the or ldinary methylated spirits of commerce in which methyl alcohol is present with paraffin as denaturant, acetone | is invariably found as an impurity. Incomplete combustion in the cylinder results in the formation of acetic acid which causes corrosion. Some other ldenaturant will therefore have to be Hound, and 1t should be observed that, to be satisfactory, the cost of separat- ing 1t from the alcohol must exceed the price of ordinary spirits such as whiskey This necessary property is | not possessed by mixture of benzol and alcohol. Such a mixture is quite lundrinkable and is of great value as a fuel, but as the alcohol mixes with water in all proportions it's separation | is matter of no difficulty. Accord ing to pr. Ormandy, a small quantity
 of methyl-vlolet Is fairly effective ldenaturant
 A considerable rise in the price of lpetrol iA the near future would have lvery serious consequences for motor
 building firms, and for scores of busi-
 ness concerns that now use motor vans and wagors!i The majority of owners of pleasure vehicles would also be badly hit A fuel which would very probably give satisfaction, and which could be Used in existing en- zines after alteration of the parburet- | tor, could be formed by mixing ben zol, already mentioned, with the alco- hol, so as to increase the richness of the fuel to about the petrol standard. It has often been predicted that the
 gas turbine will be the prime mover of the future, and, having in mind the fuel question, 1t would appear that it 1 is for tho alcohol explosion turbine that the honors are waiting. But at present there are no signs of the conn ling of the explosion turbine. Many
 solutions of the problem have been
 attempted, but in practically every in-
 stance the efficiency has been proved
 to be low The difficulties to be over-
 come are mainly mechanical. The
 gases from the explosion chamber cannot be expanded directly in a Par
 sons or other type of pressure tur-
 bine, because at the extremely high temperatures reached the blades would melt or would be oxidized, if any air happened to be present for cooling or other purposes. The ex- plosion produaas might be expanded ! in divergent nozzle, and made to give up velocity energy to a De Laval wheel. Temperature troubles may
 be avoided in this way, but no wheel can at present be constructed of sufEi- cient strength to withstand the eentri-
 fugal stresses due to the enormous ve- locity at which the wheel must be run for efficient working, In other sug- gested methods the energy of the gas | is first partly given up to masses of
 steam, air, or water, which also pass into the turbine Much loss is here incurred by the transference of heat
 between bodies of widely different
 temperature, and by the transference of momentum between bodies of wide
 ly different velocity. The pressure of
 alcohol are in its favor for turbine
 use, but 1t must be remembered thai
 high initial compression is possible
 and desirable. The greatest efficiency
 would probably be obtained by explod-
 ing the alcohol mixture under high
 compression in a reciproeating engine
 and then expanding the exhaust gases,
 together with steam generated in the
 cylinder jackets, in low pressure tur- bine. The additional cost of the in-
 stallation might not, however be com- pensated for by the saving in fuel.
 1 After the enactment of the neces-