DENATURED ALCOHOL 263 



likely to deter any from endeavoring to make and sell denatured alco- 

 hol, except those who have already devoted a large share of a studious 

 life to an endeavor to understand the present rules governing the dis- 

 tillation of spirituous liquors. 



A few of these regulations are enough to give a fair idea of the 

 whole 152 which require sixty-two good-sized, closely-printed pages for 

 their statement. Any one desiring to denature alcohol must construct 

 a bonded warehouse on the distillery premises. The most minute 

 details of its construction are laid down, even to the make of locks used 

 for locking the doors and securing the faucets and openings of the 

 tanks. A room must be provided for an internal revenue officer whose 

 duties appear to be largely to sit in the room and keep the keys in his 

 pocket. " Not less than 300 wine gallons of alcohol can be withdrawn 

 at one time for denaturing purposes." The denaturants after being 

 approved must be kept locked in the bonded warehouse until used. 

 Exact instructions concerning the bookkeeping of the establishment 

 are given. The denaturants must be ' thoroly mixt ' [sic] with the 

 alcohol in the presence of a revenue officer. If no mistakes have been 

 made thus far (and any mistake involves a stoppage of the process, 

 the filling out of numerous legal blanks, and reference to an endless 

 chain of supervisors, inspectors, collectors, and chemists), the manu- 

 facturer may draw off his product ' thru ' his approved pipes and 

 locks into receptacles of not less than 5 gallons, nor more than 135 

 gallons capacity, " all of which receptacles must be painted light 

 green." Under no circumstances is a package containing denatured 

 alcohol to be of any other color. It is to be hoped we may not 

 be left too long in suspense as to the exact shade of green demanded 

 for this momentous purpose. " Upon each head of the package shall 

 be stenciled in red letters of not less than 114 inches in length by 1 

 inch in width, the words, ' denatured alcohol.' " Seven other items 

 of interest must be stenciled on the head, but probably through some 

 oversight, the size and color of these letters do not appear to be speci- 

 fied. Complete transcripts of records of the previous month must be 

 sworn to before the tenth of the next month. The form of affidavit 

 is given, nothing seems to be forgotten, even the colors of the inks with 

 which the records are to be written are prescribed. 



Next follow regulations for the sale of denatured alcohol, if any 

 one ventures into the precarious business of making it, undaunted by 

 the legal pitfalls and penalties provided. ' Manufacturers of and deal- 

 ers in beverages of any kind ' are not permitted to keep nor store dena- 

 tured alcohol; they are in danger of the strong arm of the law if they 

 so much as have a light green cask with red letters on it in their pos- 

 session. Druggists are mercifully exempt from this prohibition. 

 Permits, which must be renewed each year, must be obtained before 



