Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-18
ALCOHOL FOR AUTOMOBILES.
What Can Be Done to Make It Prac-
 ticabIe.

What Can Be Done to Make It Prac- E ticabIe.
 Whether internal combustion en- zines now operated with gasolene can be made to work equally well with alcohol Is question which has been much discussed since the enact ment of the law exempting from tax spirits used for industrial purposes. Conflicting opinions have been ex- pressed, but possible way of recon ciling them is suggested in the En- gineering Magazine by Thomas l.. White, who in previous issue or the same periodical described a cheap method of manufacturing all cohol. MT White there described a new Swedish process, utilizing peat. which, in his judgment. would make It possible to market alcohol at a profit of five cents a gallon.
 The efficiency of alcohol In the de- velopment of power must depend a good deal on the type of engine in which 1t Is used. Most of the en- couragement obtained from recent experiments was secured with a heavy stationary engine, suited to farm work. It had a relatively long stroke, and the revolutions did not exceed hundred to the minute. The motor of an automobile presents different conditions. Its piston has short play, and often makes 2,000 complete journeys to the minute. Obviously, swift combustion in the cylinder is essential to efficiency and economy in such an engine, and that is where alcohol has proved more or less of disappointment. Mir White declares with emphasis that the faults can be corrected by the addi- ton of some other highly infiamma- "alcol carbure," for instance, is a mixture of alcohol and benzol. The compound Is open to two objections. however. It is said to leave a de- posit of soot in the cylinder and valves. and 1t Is pretty expensive. In order to get quick action as much as. 50 per cent of benzol is sometimes employed, and the supply of this sec ond member of the partnership i. rather limited. Benzol, also called benZene, is coal tar derivative, whereas benzine. with which 1t lis enormously confounded, and gaso- lene are petroleum distillates. Ac- cording to Herr Fehrmann, high German authority on alcohol en- zines, better results attend the use of acetylene in place of benzol. Acct ylene leaves no soot, he says, and MT White declares that it develops more heat and greatly facilitates the starting of the motor.
 How much acetylene Is needed the. writer for the Engineering Magazine fails to say, but it may be presumed that the quantity required would not add greatly to the cost of this blend" Another point on which further information Is desirable is the method by which the acetylene- which is a. gas-is added to vapor Of alcohol before explosion. Acety- lene is produced by wetting calcium carbide, solid. If a reasonably simple bit of apparatus, convenient ly placed under an automobile, will serve the purpose, MT Whites rec ommendation will deserve careful consideration.
 Since the discovery of cheap source of acetylene in this country, 10 or 12 years ago, the gas has been employed extensively either alone as an i1luminant, or to enrich water gas. Apparently, 1t can be produced in unlimited quantities. and if it can be used for the development of power 1t will have a new claim to popular favor. It would be a clever stroke of policy for the men who are now engaged in manufacturing cal
 cium carbide to examine MT Whites statements, and determine what fur ther steps are necessary to open up fresh market for their product. The matter will doubtless receive the attention of the makers of sta. tionary gas engines, and the build- CTS of automobiles also. If, without any change in construction. their machines will prove equally well adapted to the use of two kinds or fuel as dissimilar as alcohol and gasolene, 1t ought to be for their interest to learn and promulgate the fact. More than one shrewd judge expe diminution in the world $ supply of gasolene before many years, in spite of its present low price A satisfactory demonstration that the faults of alcohol can be overcome easily would, moreover, give new stimulus to projects for itg manufacture New York Tri-