THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 61 



Wood alcohol is largely used in the varnish industries as 

 a solvent for resins, for the manufacture of 

 formaldehyde and for the purposes of denaturing 

 ordinary grain alcohol. 



Acetate of lime is used for the manufacture of wood 

 acetic acid, acetates, acetic ether, acetone, iodo- 

 form and chloroform. 



The financial success of this industry rests on the disposal 

 of the main products, acetates, charcoal, alcohol and tar, for 

 which a high development of chemical industries is essential : 

 in ordinary times, tiie manufacture of acetone from the acetates 

 for the purpose of making cordite or smokeless powder cannot 

 absorb all the output. 



In countries where ordinary grain alcohol is produced on a 

 large scale denatured alcohol is cheaper than wood alcohol, so 

 that the demand for the latter, even in the varnish trade and for 

 fuel, is limited. Charcoal, when produced on a large scale from 

 a destructive distillation plant, has to be disposed of wholesale 

 for the manufacture of pig-iron, and for this again there is not 

 much demand at remunerative rates, the pig-iron being now 

 made with coal instead of charcoal. An article on the hard- 

 wood distillation industry by Katzenstein in the Scientific 

 American of 1st January 1916, while paying a tribute to the 

 o-reat service of the industrial chemist in improving the pro- 

 cesses and plant necessary for the rectification of acetic acid and 

 wood alcohol, thereby making a substantial reduction in the cost 

 of their production, betrays the somewhat unsound condition of 

 the industry in America before the war, due entirely to the diffi- 

 culty in finding a ready market for the different products. In 

 this connection the Scientific American states :— 



" The hard-wood distillation industry has been brought to popular 



ttention of late, on account of the rapid increase in value of one of its 



products, acetate of lime, which is being converted, in large amounts, 



■ to acetone for the manufacture of smokeless powder. This recent 



impetus has been a great boon in the industry, for with low prices for 



