Pi<EsiL)i':i\ riAL .\i)i)ki':ss — sia tiun a. y^ 



1 he use of alcohol as a iii()((n- furl and iis inamifaclure from 

 maize would give a wontUrful fdip lo ihc agricuUural interests 

 of this country, and, at thr >anic tunc, serve the higher interests 

 of fuel economy. As one writer has said: 



" It is at present the only medium through which man is 

 able to convert the heat energy of the sun into work in a suffi- 

 ciently reasonable time, ami in sutilcicnt (iuantitics to justify 

 the term 'fuel' to ihe product. ... It is the only fuel 

 which can be manufactured in large (luantities without recourse 

 to existing fuel substances, and this possibility is of the utmost 

 importance in countries devoid of any large quantity of natural 

 oils suitable for internal combustion engines. It affords the only 

 weapon of defence against increasing cost of imported fuel. 

 . . . At some distantl}^ future date, when our coal 

 measures are nearing exhaustion, it may become the fuel on 

 which the nation is primarily dependent." 



Notwithstanding the advanced state of ci\-ilisation at tlu' 

 present day, many problems have still to be solved. In im])rove(l 

 methods of tht^ production of power there is much work for 

 the engineer of the future, and in connection with fuel liis 

 labours must be closely associated with those of the chem'cal 

 technologist. Who knows that posterity may not smile at the 

 crude method of obtaining power in the twentieth century by 

 excavating a carlionaceous substance from the bowels of the 

 earth ! 



I will conclude with a quotation from an introductorv lec- 

 ture delivered to his sttidents at University College, London, a 

 few years ago by Professor Fleming: 



" While we are no doubt a long way yet from an energy 

 famine, the world has arrived at a stage in which we cannot 

 afford to treat our available resources at all wastefully. Hence 

 the engineer is more than ever the arbiter of the world's desti- 

 nies. The fate of the population, and, indeed, of civilisation 

 itself, depends a great deal more on the engineer than it d'les 

 on most of our statesman and politicians with their quack or 

 doubtful remedies for human ills. Hence there is a wide field 

 for useful work in all branches of engineering, ])rovided we 

 bring to its prosecution initiative, originality, and a high scienti- 

 fic training." 



APPENDIX. 



Tests of Alcohol Motor Fuel. 



Object of I he Tests: The object of these tests was to deter- 

 mine, under ordinary j^etrol conditions, the relative consuni])tions 

 per brake horse-power ])er hour of petn^l and a new fuel having 

 alcohol as its base, and to ascertain its possibilitit^-' as a snb'-ti- 

 tute for petrol as a motor fuel. 



