INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL USES AND STATISTICS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is important that the farmer should have a general idea of the 

 uses to which industrial alcohol (usually denatured) may be devoted. 

 While this information is not necessary for the production of the raw 

 materials, it is nevertheless valuable in indicating the particular lines 

 of industrial development which may be promoted by free alcohol in 

 the arts as related to the welfare of agriculture. The technical uses 

 of alcohol are extremely numerous, and no attempt will be made to 

 give them all, but only to mention those which are of the greatest 

 importance. 



HEATING AND ILLUMINATION. 



The most important of the uses of industrial alcohol as far as the 

 farmer is directly concerned are those included in heating and illu- 

 mination. For these purposes the farmers of the country, when the 

 processes are adjusted and the technical difficulties of production, 

 manufacturing, and denaturing are overcome, will find alcohol 

 extremely useful. Especially will this be true in localities remote 

 from centers of the production of wood, coal, kerosene, gasoline, 

 natural gas, and oil, which now are the chief heating and illuminating 

 agents. 



ALCOHOL STOVES. 



The success of the alcohol stove depends largely upon the char- 

 acter of the wick, which must absorb the alcohol and be so adjusted 

 as to give the necessary heating 

 surface. By converting the alcohol 

 into a gas and burning the vapor 

 thus formed the wick may be dis- 

 pensed with and a more effective 

 burner obtained. The general 

 principles involved in heating with 

 alcohol are the same as for other 

 heating substances. The only dif- 

 ferences are in the methods of pro- 

 ducing the combustion. Alcohol 

 burns with a pale blue flame which 

 is intensely hot. It is without smoke, and if there be any odor at all 

 it is an agreeable and not a disagreeable one. The products of com- 

 bustion of pure alcohol are water and carbon dioxid. The latter gas 

 should be conducted out of the room by the ordinary methods of 



FIG. 1. Alcohol burner for heating a flatiron. 



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