94 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. \io Feb., 1911^ 



ALCOHOL FOR MOTIVE POWEK. 



E. S. Holmes, Assistant to Chief Inspector of Produce. 



The greatly increasing use in Australia of motors for all kinds of work: 

 makes it imperatively necessary that, in view of a possible failure of sup- 

 plies of liquid fuel from abroad, the manufacture on a large scale of a 

 cheap and efficient substitute for the foreign article should be commenced' 

 without delay within our own borders. 



If the manufacture of this substitute could, at one and the same time^ 

 provide employment to a large number of men, and use up material that: 

 at present goes largely to waste, it would not only add to the commercial 

 resources and prosperity of the Commonwealth, but would lead to a much 

 wider and varied use of motive power in all its industries. 



It is in the use of small motors that the enormous increase has taken 

 place within the last decade, principally in the cities and to-Ams, but the- 

 day does not appear to be far distant when the agriculturist will depend. 

 to a very large extent on motor driven appliances for the general opera- 

 tions of his farm. The question of liquid fuel supply is therefore one- 

 that greatly concerns him, and the solution will be all the more satisfactory 

 if he finds that he can himself provide the material not only for his own 

 wants, but for those of the whole community. 



Scientific men, both in Europe and America, have been directing their 

 research to the production and effective use of alcohol as a liquid fuel ;. 

 considerable success has attended their investigations, and it would seem 

 that in alcohol we have the very thing that our circumstances require. 



The moti\'e power, other than electricity, in general use at the present: 

 day for motor driven machinery is gasolene — a by-product in the purifi- 

 cation of petroleum which constitutes about 5 per cent., by volume, of the 

 crude oil. Being as it is, only a by-product, its production is limited by 

 the output of the petroleum industry, and as the demand for gasolene has 

 increased to a much greater degree than the demand for petroleum, it ha.s- 

 led to the price of gasolene being almost doubled within recent years. 

 What is to take its place if prices continue to rise and the supply falls, 

 short of the demand is a question that will have to be seriously considered 

 before long. 



Both in Germany and America it has been proved that alcohol as a 

 motive power, gallon for gallon, is little inferior to gasolene. It has many 

 advantages over the latter ; it stands higher compression without premature- 

 explosion ; it is cleaner ; the exhaust gases are not so objectionable as those 

 from gasolene ; its vapour is not so inflammable as that from gasolene, 

 except where closely confined ; and its production is practically unlimited,, 

 being as it is a product of fermentation of starchy or saccharine matter, 

 mostly at the present time of a waste nature. 



In Germany during a single year, the production of alcohol, from 

 potatoes alone, reached a total of 80,000,000 gallons. Potatoes, howevei, 

 are not the only material from which alcohol may be produced. In 

 America, the waste of sugar factories, the surplus corn crops, and even 

 saw-dust and the stalks of maize are used. It is estimated that in- 

 America, in the course of a year, 100,000,000 gallons could be pro- 

 duced from corn stalks alone. One reason for the encouragement of the 

 manufacture of alcohol from farm products is that it would provide a 



