The HardiDood Distillntion Industry in Neiu YorJc 59 



During the year 1914 the market price of 82% crude wood 

 alcohol was 25 cents per gallon delivered to the refineries in 

 tank cars and the price of 95% refined delivered to buyers 

 in free wooden barrels to points east of the Mississippi river 

 45 cents per gallon in 1 to 10 bbl. lots and a small discount 

 in carloads. Prices held at these figures until October, 1915, 

 when the price of 95% refined wood alcohol began to advance 

 first to 50 cents, later to 55 cents, then on February of 1916 

 to 65 cents, and on October 1, 1916, to 70 cents, the price 

 of crude steadily advancing to the present figure of 45 cents 

 per gallon. These advances were made possible by the rapid 

 increase in the price of denatured alcohol, this material now 

 being 60 cents per gallon. There is every indication that the 

 price of both alcohols has gone sufficiently high for some 

 time to come. In the spring of 1916, 97% refined alcohol 

 brought 70' cents pei- gallon, diethyl acetone was worth 

 90 cents to 95 cents per gallon and pure methyl or Columbian 

 methanol was worth $1 a gallon. 



With the increased use of both acetate of lime and wood 

 alcohol, the demand for chareoal has not kept pace with these 

 other two products, and consequently prices have suffered 

 very materially. At the present time, charcoal is only bring- 

 ing around 5 cents to 6 cents per bushel. In 1914 it was 

 bringing 7 cents a bushel wholesale at the acid factory. The 

 estimated production of charcoal in this country before the 

 war broke out, was about five million bushels a month and 

 the iron furnaces took by far the greatest proportion of this. 



Practically all of the products of the wood distillation 

 industry are sold wholesale in carbad lots at the factory. 

 The wood alcohol is shipped in tank cars or in tight barrels. 

 Charcoal is shipped in sacks and the acetate of lime is also" 

 shipped in sacks or bags. Up to the present time, no regular 

 market has been developed either for the wood gas or wood 

 tar. Both of these are usually now consumed as fuel under- 



