30 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL— ITS USES 



Heating and Illiunination 



The most important of the uses of in- 

 dustrial alcohol as far as the farmer is 

 directly concerned are those included in 

 heating and illumination. For these pur- 

 poses the farmers of the country, when 

 the processes are adjusted and the technic- 

 al difficulties of production, manufactur- 

 ing, 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 il- 

 luminating agents. 



Alcobol Stoves 



The success of the alcohol stove de- 

 pends largely upon the character of the 

 wick, which must absorb the alcohol and 

 be so adjusted as to give the necessary 

 heating surface. By converting the alco- 

 hol into a gas and burning the vapor thus 

 formed the wick may be dispensed with 

 and a more effective burner obtained. 

 The general principles involved in heat- 

 ing with alcohol are the same as for 

 other heating substances. The only dif- 

 ferences are in the methods of producing 

 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 car- 

 bon dioxid. The latter gas should be 

 conducted out of the room by the ordinary 

 methods of ventilation. No form of 

 burner should be allowed to pour the 

 products of combustion into the room. The 

 water which is formed is harmless, but 

 the carbon dioxid, which is produced in 

 large proportions, will soon vitiate the air 

 of the room and tend to produce drowsi- 

 ness, headache, and injury to health. The 

 common methods of burning gas and kero- 

 sene in a room without ventilation are 

 also objectionable for the same reason. 

 Some form of ventilation by means of 



which the products could be removed 

 from the room through a chimney or 

 otherwise is highly desirable. 



Stoves of many different kinds have 

 been invented for burning alcohol. There 

 are stoves for heating flatirons. soldering 

 irons, crimping irons, roasting coffee, etc. 



Alcohol Lamps 



Alcohol can not be used directly for il- 

 luminating purposes. The flame does not 

 possess any notable illuminating power. In 

 order that alcohol may be used for illu- 

 mination it must be burned in a state of 

 gas and the heat produced by the com- 

 bustion utilized to produce incandescence 

 in the ordinary mantle which surrounds 

 the common gas flame for the same pur- 

 pose. It has been discovered that when 

 certain earths, such as thoria, in a state 

 of fine subdivision, are subjected to the 

 action of a high temperature, they become 

 intensely white and produce by their in- 

 candescence the maximum degree of il- 

 lumination. The thoria is first deposited 

 upon some substance such as cloth and 

 so distributed that when the cloth burns 

 away the particles of thoria remain in the 

 original shape of the mantle. When held 

 over the flame of gas or alcohol the par- 

 ticles become incandescent. To adjust an 

 alcohol lamp for this purpose it is only 

 necessary to make an attachment where- 

 by the alcohol is first converted into a 

 vapor. In order to light such a lamp a 

 portion of the alcohol must first be va- 

 porized. 



It is evident that the amount of heat 

 produced is to some extent a measure of 

 the illuminating value when the incan- 

 descent mantle is taken into consideration. 

 It is the high temperature which produces 

 the incandescence and therefore the gas 

 which in burning gives the highest tem- 

 perature, other conditions being the same, 

 would be of the most value for illumina- 

 tion. All of these points must be con- 

 sidered to prevent the formation of wrong 

 opinions concerning the efficiency of alco- 

 hol for illumination, heating, and motive 

 power, as compared with gasolene, which 

 is the agent most used for these purposes, 

 and which alcohol is expected to super- 

 sede. 



