COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 29 1 



COMMITTEE ON THE SEPARATION OF METHYL, OR WOOD 

 SPIRITS, FROM ETHYL ALCOHOL. 1882 



The reasons for which the advice of the Academy was desired 

 on this subject are very clearly and fully stated in a letter which 

 the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Green B. Raum, ad- 

 dressed to the President on April 12, 1882. He writes: 



" There is now pending before Congress a bill ( H. R. 5082) ' To authorize the 

 withdrawal from distillery warehouse, without tax, of alcohol and other spirits 

 to be used in industrial pursuits,' which bill provides that ' such spirits shall 

 either first have been mixed with one-ninth of their bulk of methyl, or wood 

 alcohol, of equal proof strength, or that such spirits shall be withdrawn for use 

 in tobacco factories, or such other industrial pursuits as shall entail their complete 

 destruction so that they cannot be recovered by any process of distillation.' 



" It is therefore deemed important to the interests of the revenue that a careful 

 and thorough investigation be made, having for its object the determination of 

 the fact whether the methyl, or wood spirits may be entirely, or approximately, 

 separated by distillation, or in any other economical manner from the ethyl alco- 

 hol, or spirits of wine, upon which the tax is imposed. 



" In other words, the information sought is as to whether the science of chem- 

 istry now enables the possessor of the methylated spirits to separate the ethyl 

 alcohol from such mixture in such a state of purity, and at such a probable cost as 

 might enable the holder to sell it in the market at a less price than those persons 

 who withdraw spirits from bond upon payment of the tax at the rate of ninety cents 

 per proof gallon. 



" I have therefore to respectfully request that a committee of the National 

 Academy of Sciences be appointed to undertake this investigation, and to inform 

 this office of the result at the earliest moment practicable. 



" I desire particularly to be advised as to the relative vaporizing point of 

 purified wood-naphtha as compared with distilled spirits of the same specific 

 gravity, and such other information on the subject as may assist this Office in reach- 

 ing a conclusion as to whether or not the bill referred to would be liable to abuse 

 if it should become a law. 



" I have to ask if it is the pleasure of the academy to undertake this investiga- 

 tion, and if so to be informed as to the nature and quantity of alcohol, wood- 

 naphtha, and other materials which will be needed in the prosecution of this 

 inquiry. ^■'- 



The Acting President, Prof. O. C. Marsh, appointed a com- 

 mittee consisting of Ira Remsen, G. F. Barker and C. F. Chand- 

 ler which reported on September 18, 1882. The report covered 



""Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1883, pp. 57, 58. 



