28 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



engine has some characteristics not possessed by an engine or plant 

 using coal, which makes it able to do things the other can not do, 

 or that more of the heat it contains can be transformed into energy 

 for useful work. Both of these things are true. (F. B. 274.) 



Aleohol As a Fuel. The efficiency of an alcohol engine may 

 be assumed at this time to be unknown, but as alcohol can be burned 

 in engines designed for gasoline, it may be assumed that such an 

 engine will have with alcohol fuel the same thermal efficiency as 

 with gasoline, to-wit, 19 per cent for fair working conditions. (F. 

 B. 274.) 



If the alcohol engine can be shown to have an efficiency as 

 high or higher than other liquid-fuel engines and be similar in type 

 and characteristics, it can do all that they can do, and its field will 

 be the same as their field in spite of fuel costs ; but by field is meant 

 the nature of the work rather than the geographical location. Should 

 it appear that the alcohol engine can do more or better work than 

 its oil or gasoline competitors, its field will be wider. In any case 

 the position which the alcohol engine may take today is no criterion 

 as to its future, because it will operate on a source of energy or fuel 

 supply which is inexhaustible, whereas the supply of both crude oil 

 and its distillates may ultimately become exhausted. 



The determination, then, of the position of the alcohol engine 

 today involves a forecast of the future, and should it be shown to be 

 able to compete now it must inevitably reach a stronger and more 

 important industrial position as time goes on. (F. B. 274.) 



There are other uses to which alcohol may be put on the farm. 

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

 farmer is directly concerned are those included in heating and 

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

 the processes are adjusted and the technical difficulties of produc- 

 tion, 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 illuminat- 

 ing agents. (F. B. 269.) 



Denatured Alcohol. The difficulty that has stood in the way 

 of alcohol coming into more general use on the farm has been the 

 expense. The Congressional law permitting the denaturing of alco- 

 hol reduced the cost materially but it is still too great to admit of 

 general use as a fuel. The Agricultural Department has conducted 

 numerous experiments for the making of alcohol from farm refuse. 

 On every farm there is much waste material out of which alcohol' 

 could be distilled, but not enough on any farm to compensate for 

 the erection of a still. There is enough, however, in almost every 

 neighborhood, if the farmers would co-operate, to justify the erection 

 of a still. This would use material that otherwise would be wasted, 

 and at the same time enable the farmer to procure a most excellent 

 fuel at a cost that would actually prove an economy. A small still, 

 large enough for neighborhood use would not require a very large 

 investment of capital. The Agricultural Department has estimated 



