August lo, 1905] 



NA TURE 



345 



making materials which should be white or ivory 

 coloured. 



In the gunpowder manufactor}-, if pure alcohol were 

 used to dehydrate the material the dangerous drying 

 process by heat could be done away with, because 

 the material moistened with alcohol can be directly 

 placed in the mixers containing acetone, &c., the 

 moistness due to alcohol not interfering with 

 the process of manufacture, whereas that due 

 to water is harmful. For making so-called " con- 

 densed " powders which are totally dissolved in the 

 solvent the action of methylated spirit is objection- 

 able; as one of the witnesses stated, "you cannot 

 control the surface of the grain with a methylated- 

 ether mixture in the same way that you can with a 

 pure alcohol-ether." To a large extent the lack of 

 initiative on the part of British powder manufac- 

 turers mav be indirectly attributed to the high cost 

 of alcohol. Some lacquer manufacturers and users of 

 lacquers state that lacquers made from pure alcohol 

 are very much superior to those made from methyl- 

 ated spirit. Mr. Bagley, the witness from Messrs. 

 Samuel Heath and Sons, the largest brass-founders in 

 the world, stated that, although they are easily able 

 to compete with Continental manufacturers so far as 

 their brass ware is concerned, their goods .ire often 

 not acceptable because of the want of durability and 

 finish of the lacquering. The lacquer costs some- 

 thing about 4^. per gallon, but they can, by paying 

 32i., obtain a lacquer made with absolute alcohol, and 

 this is as good as the best foreign lacquer. The wit- 

 ness said he was ashamed' to have to confess that 

 they could not obtain the fine finish which the 

 Germans produced, and, as regards the French 

 importers, thev absolutely refused to take lacquered 

 articles, but bought them unlacquered and finished 

 them themselves. This witness was of the opinion 

 that the foreign lacquers were made with pure 

 alcohol, but it was subsequently pointed out bv the 

 chairman that even abroad it was denatured. On 

 the other hand, Mr. Gardiner, the manager of the 

 firm of Messrs. .-\. Lambley and .Sons, said that they 

 not i_ ily could make lacquers as good as Continental 

 manufacturers, but that thev had a large export trade 

 and had no difficulty in meeting Continental compe- 

 tition ; they very rarely used pure alcohol for making 

 lacquers. 



From the extremely contradictory evidence of these 

 two witnesses it would appear that it is more a 

 matter of method or knack in the manufacture than 

 of methylated or pure alcohol which determines the 

 quality of the lacquers. 



There seems very little doubt but that the manu- 

 facture of fine chemicals and synthetic perfumes is 

 considerably interfered with owing to the Briti.sh 

 manufacturer not being able to use duty-free alcohol. 

 ^^'hen methylated alcohol is employed for crystallising 

 the substances there is invariably a peculiar and dis- 

 agreeable odour attending the finished product. But 

 if the manufacturer, in order to get over this diffi- 

 culty, employs duty-paid absolute alcohol, the in- 

 creased cost of manufacture is prohibitive. It was 

 stated in evidence, for example, that with regard to 

 the manufacture of phenacetin " the duty on the 

 spirit would come to 140/. on 100/. worth of the article 

 as imported. " 



Chloral hydrate is another substance which cannot 

 profitably be made in this country. In the manu- 

 facture of ether from methylated spirit Mr. David 

 Howard stated that " if we might have pure methyl 

 alcohol and pure ethyl alcohol, it would be a beautiful 

 thing to make ether of. But the result of the ketones 

 and other bodies in it is that the sulphuric acid gets 

 in a most horrible mess, and we get abominable com- 

 pounds which I have never been able to excite the 

 NO '867, VOL. 72] 



interest of any chemist in yet ; but they are a very 

 great disadvantage." 



Those connected with the motor-car industry and 

 the use of alcohol for motor eng-ines in place of petrol 

 seemed to consider that very much better results can 

 be obtained with pure alcohol than with methylated 

 spirit. .\ perusal of the evidence leads to the con- 

 clusion that further experimenting in this direction 

 would be advisable. One is certainly inclined to the 

 opinion that the presence of bases would be harmful,, 

 as these would probably on combustion be converted 

 into products which would corrode the metal work. 

 Of course, if alcohol is to be employed for motor pur- 

 poses it would of necessity require to be denatured, 

 because it would then be sold in large and small 

 quantities at every little oil-shop in the kingdom. If 

 motor-engineers wish to build alcohol engines they 

 will have to experiment with all sorts of denaturants, 

 and, doubtless, the excise authorities would aid them 

 in their endeavours. 



In reading through the report one is struck by the 

 repeated reference which is made to the relative cost 

 of pure duty-free alcohol in the United Kingdom and 

 in Germany; British manufacturers do not seem able 

 to compete in the manufacture of alcohol with their 

 German rivals even when working under equal con- 

 ditions. Further, it is a well-known fact amongst 

 chemists that it is practically impossible to get really 

 good absolute alcohol of British manufacture. It is 

 a remarkable fact that traces of impurities which one 

 can barely find by analysis interfere very much with 

 the smooth working of reactions in which alcohol is 

 employed. This fact came out again and again in 

 the evidence of witnesses before the committee. 

 Those on the committee who were there to look after 

 the interests of the excise endeavoured with great 

 skill to shake the evidence on this point, explaining 

 that if the quantity of an impurity was only a fraction 

 of a per cent., it surely could not possibly cause all 

 the mischief attributed to it. The invariable reply 

 was, the product when made with absolute alcohol 

 has such and such properties, but it is either im- 

 possible or a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain the 

 same results with methylated spirit. 



On the other hand, in a good many cases it ap- 

 peared that sufficient experimental work had not been 

 tried. Methylated spirit had been condemned for 

 manufacturing this or that article, but little or no 

 attempt seemed to have been made to try spirit de- 

 natured in other ways or to try the use of other sol- 

 vents. By the .Act of igoa manufacturers were allowed 

 to suggest other means of denaturing the alcohol, 

 and in some cases at least the excise authorities had 

 been very willing to aid them in their efforts. .As a 

 matter of fact, in manufacturing operations in Ger- 

 many it is rare for absolute alcohol to be employed, 

 the alcohol generally being denatured in a way which 

 suits the particular manufacturer. Of course, where 

 the use of pure alcohol is absolutely necessary the 

 German has a much lower excise duty to compete 

 with than the British manufacturer. That excise 

 restrictions, the high duty on alcohol, and a consider- 

 able amount of red tape have, in some cases, made 

 the manufacture of certain products — so as to com- 

 pete with the foreign manufacturer — almost an im- 

 possibility there can be no doubt. But why that 

 should hinder British manufacturers who manufac- 

 ture products in which alcohol is not employed it is 

 not easy to see. 



If instead of calling in an outside "expert" (?) 

 when an emergency arises the manufacturers were 

 to employ a certain number of well-trained chemists, 

 men who, after being on the staff for a .short time, 

 should be far and away superior to outside experts, 

 there is but little doubt that fewer emergencie-' '" ould 



