ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 135 



distillation process might, and probably would, be em- 

 ployed to keep up the supply of petrol for the market. 

 But this, of course, could be only a temporary expedient. 

 There would come a time when the stock of petrol thus 

 obtained would be at an end. Then the turn of alcoholic 

 fuel would arrive. This the authority in question regards 

 as so far-reaching in its effects that the result of its intro- 

 duction is described by anticipation as a social revolution. 



" To make this clear to the general reader it is necessary 

 to observe that petroleum, the source of petrol, kerosene, 

 paraffin, and the heavier rock oils, is a natural product. 

 The supply, therefore, like that of coal, is limited. On 

 the other hand, alcohol can be manufactured by a process 

 of fermentation from vegetable products, such as beet 

 and potatoes. 



" Quite clearly, one important result of a utilization 

 of alcohol as a fuel would be an enormously increased 

 demand for it. To meet this demand, it would be necessary 

 to increase proportionately the sources of supply. This 

 would have to be done by enlarging the area of potato and 

 beet growing, to meet the necessities of which rural labour 

 would undergo a material change for the betterment of 

 the agricultural industry. Potatoes and beet would be 

 grown for the industrial purpose of supplying alcohol as a 

 fuel, and the question of ' back to the land ' would thus, 

 to a considerable degree at any rate, automatically solve 

 itself." 



The comparative fuel values of gasolene and alcohol, 

 especially from the point of view of the motor industry, 

 have, according to the Pharmaceutical Journal, been the 

 subject of an inquiry by the American Bureau of Mines. 

 Some two thousand tests were made to ascertain the 

 comparative value of heavy fuel oils and alcohol for in- 

 ternal-combustion engines. The heating value of one 

 cubic foot of an explosive mixture of alcohol and air, 

 having theoretically just sufficient air for complete com- 

 bustion, is approximately equal to that of a similar 

 explosive mixture of gasolene vapour and air, but the 



