pe Ee eee a ee ee ee 
i 
Manufacture of Alcohol by illuminating Gas. = 
Finally, the question takes a new phase, for Elie de Beaumont does not 
admit that the deposit at Moulin Quignon belongs to the Post-terti 
but classes it with “ deposits laid down upon hill-sides,” and considers it 
consequently as more recent than the diluvium. 
i ne-Edwards, without sing to discuss with E. ‘i Beaumont, the 
ing it very probable that the jaw from Moulin Geigath cotem 
neous with the fossil bones obtained from the same quarry. les 
gists and paleontologists, in general, share the opinion of the illustrious 
geologist, but the sea is still in ¢ in discussion. [For a notice of this dis- 
covery, see this v . 123.—Eps 
The infact of alcohol by means of illuminating gas.—The indus- 
trial _ has n, for some time, much i interest ted in a process for the 
among the pica "curiosities at “the London Rakibition, oe it 
has been said by so eh na ee both in France and elsewhere, that the 
oxen is going on : unian and that ae apparatus which 
_Teceives coal upon one side! teh out alcohol on nf 
These are exaggerations of certain results obtained by a company which 
has n organized at St. Quentin for undertaking the application of a 
patent "obtained by Mr. Cotelle, a ee chemist. The patent is 
founded upon the experiment by means of whic h Berthelot, in 1855* 
accomplished the synthesis of qidohie l, by causing the absorption of 
olefiant gas, C#H4, by sulphuric acid, thus converting it into sulpho-vinie 
roach a compound ‘readily turned into alcohol by processes long since 
repeated with C+H4 peered from a cohol. _ Mr. Cotelle egal mostly 
eparating this ‘by means of sulphuric acid, there remains a gas- 
eous mixture, composed of C?H*, CO, H, &c., very suitable for burning, 
so that this first sontestad ought to cost very little, especially if the manu- 
facture be undertaken at the —o so as to take advantage of the 
which issues from the coke 
To produce one hectolitre ‘of alcohol of si #25 cent, Mr. Cotelle uses 
not more than 40 cubic metres of C*H+*, which corresponds to about 
two tons of the northern coal used at St. Sault in 
But the difficulty is not solely in the produdtion of C4H#; there is 
so needed a large amount of concentrated sulphuric acid, (10 parts of 
HO S02 to 1 of alcohol). This, used at 66° of Beaumé’s areometer, re- 
sary, then, either to concentrate it again for a new process, or to utilize it in 
its diluted state; from this we see the necessity for either concentrating 
apparatus or leaden chambers; for a hectolitre = shea requires for its 
production 1500 kilometres of sulphuric acid at 
$ we perceive a series of difficulties sick are wkot yet overcome, 
but which are isindekliaal day by day. Still, Cotelle’s process is inter 
* This Journal, [2], xx, 111, 264. 
Am. Jour. Sc1.—SEconD Series, VoL. XXXVI, No. 108.—Nov., 1863. 
52 
