28 THE CUB A RE VIEW 



replace oil in the ratio of their respective heat values, or one pound is equal to 0.1964 

 pound of oil. Where oil costs $2.50 per barrel of 42 gallons, or 0.7 cent per 

 pound, the value of molasses for this purpose is 0.139 cent, or less than two-tenths 

 of a cent per pound. As will be seen later, molasses is worth so much more for other 

 purposes, that it should never be used as a fuel. It is too much like burning up money. 



Use as Stock Food Limited 



Molasses is used, in combination with other materials, as a stock food. In sections 

 like Louisiana, where, by reason of short hauls to market it is not burdened by high 

 transportation charges, a certain part of the production is in demand for this purpose. 

 The demand, however, is not large, and the quantity thus diverted does not affect the 

 situation generally, and has only a local value. 



Use for Production of Alcohol 



In the past, molasses has been used principally as a raw material for production 

 of alcohol. Up to the time of the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment, there was a 

 steady demand in the United States for alcohol for blended whiskies, etc., and an 

 increasing demand for alcohol, denatured or otherwise, for industrial use, the principal 

 use being, however, for blending. During that period, Cuban molasses sold at prices 

 ranging from 2 to 3 cents per gallon. During the war, it sold for 6 cents. Now, 

 however, the demand is less and the price today is said to be about one cent. 



In the meantime, the increasing use of the internal combustion engine, the rise 

 in the price of gasoline, its scarcity and excessively high price in sugar producing coun- 

 tries, have combined to influence the development of alcohol as a gasoline substitute. 

 It has long been regarded as the coming liquid fuel because, being produced from 

 plants which grow every year, a sufificient quantity can be counted upon, and there 

 need be no apprehension about squandering our resources, because in the cycle of the 

 production of alcohol practically everything that comes out of the ground can be 

 returned to it. 



As to the practical application of alcohol to the internal combustion engine, it 

 was found that with alcohol alone, the engine would not start cold, that it could not 

 be used in a gasoline motor, because that motor has not sufficient compression, and 

 worst of all, with poor carburetor adjustment there was oxidation to acetic acid in the 

 cylinder, resulting in the destruction of the engine from corrosion and pitting. It 

 developed, however, that a large percentage of sulphuric ether added to the alcohol 

 made it practical to use it in the gasoline engine with no change in compression, that 

 with such a mixture the engine would start cold, that any slight tendency, under 

 conditions of bad carburetor adjustment, to the appearance of acetic acid, could be 

 controlled by the addition of a small quantity of material of an alkaline nature. 



Fuel Alcohol Formulas 



It is evident that a mixture of the kind just described is denatured sufficiently 

 at least to make it undrinkable, and therefore taxfree. Revenue regulations, however, 

 require denaturing according to certain prescribed formulas, so that in default of 

 an existing formula exactly suited to the purpose, this feature has resulted in alcohol- 

 ether fuels which contain more elements than are necessary for the purpose of 

 obtaining a good fuel. An alcohol-ether fuel in which the alcohol is first denatured 

 according to formula No. 3 of the United States Internal Revenue Bureau, is as follows: 



Ethyl Alcohol 100 Gal. 



Sulphuric Ether 5 " 



Benzine or Kerosene 2 " 



Pyridine Bases 1 " 



