Solid Alcohol — Alcohol, Ether and Gun Cotton 



Alcohol Coffee Roaster 



Heating and Lighting with Alcohol 



JLCOHOL, be it pure or de- 

 natured, is in many respects 

 superior to kerosene and gaso- 

 lene for the heating of rooms 

 and of cooking and other 

 household utensils. 



Alcohol can be used in al- 

 most any stove which burns gasolene, and in a 

 "blue flame" kerosene stove with little or no 

 change it has all the advantages of a good fuel. 

 As a household fuel it has many additional ones. 

 It is safer than most substances of its kind; the 

 accidental tire can be extinguished with water, 

 whereas kerosene and gasolene fires are spread 

 thereby. Alcohol is not greasy by nature, nor 

 can there be any disagreeable odor attending 

 its use. The flame is at all times non-smoking, 

 as well as odorless, and thereby is rendered espe- 

 cially desirable for cleanly cooking, particularly 

 for broiling. The kitchen utensils are never 

 blackened by the alcohol flame, 

 and time and labor are saved 

 by this fact, too. 



Advantages not so easily ob- 

 served, but which are none the 

 less real and important, are 

 found in the increased health- 

 fulness and purity of the air of 

 a closed room in which an 

 alcohol stove is burning, as com- 

 pared with one containing a 

 kerosene or gasolene stove. 



A larger part of the heating 

 value of alcohol than of petro- 

 leum comes from the combus- 

 tion of the gaseous element 

 hydrogen, which produces a 

 hotter flame and no noxious 

 combustion products, but only 

 water. Alcohol should be used, 

 therefore, whenever possible 

 for heating, because it produces 

 far less carbon dioxide and 

 deadly carbon monoxide than 

 petroleum products. Alcohol, it 

 may be expected, will soon cost 

 about the same as gasolene and 

 but a trifle more than kerosene 



By John R. Waley 



Section of Interior of Burner. 



is 



-Gas-holder with variable 

 gauze top. 

 Heat-conductor with 

 holder for mantle 



Alcohol Lamp with 

 Welsbach Mantle 



weight for weight. The relative costs of equal 

 amounts of heat theoretically given off by these 

 three are: 



Gasolene 1.35 



Kerosene 1.02 



Alcohol 2.19 



The apparent superior economy of petroleum 

 products in theory is not borne out in practise. 

 There are greater heat losses from the gasolene 

 and kerosene flames than from the alcohol 

 flame; the latter, because it contains no solid 

 incandescent carbon, does not radiate heat so 

 much. These facts and others of a purely 

 technical nature, combine to make the cost of 

 alcohol heating only about one-fifth more than 

 that of kerosene or gasolene for equal heating 

 effects. This slight difference in cost, which may 

 soon be changed to the favor of alcohol by its 

 cost falling below that of the others, is more 

 than compensated by the advantages just men- 

 tioned. It has not sufficed to 

 hinder the widespread use of 

 spirit for such purposes in 

 Europe. 



The denaturing of grain 

 alcohol with small amounts of 

 wood alcohol and benzene, as 

 the United States regulations 

 prescribe, in no way interferes 

 with its value as a fuel ; it is nec- 

 essary only that the denatured 

 alcohol should correspond to at 

 least ninety volume per cent, 

 pure alcohol, and should not be 

 denatured with any solid sub- 

 stance. 



In this connection a novel 

 form of alcohol fuel, called 

 Smaragdin, which has recently 

 been introduced abroad, may 

 be mentioned. It is solid and 

 comes in small cubes about one- 

 third inch in size, and consists 

 principally of alcohol with the 

 addition of a little ether, 

 which together dissolve a small 

 amount of gun cotton. This 

 sets to a jelly-like solid, which 



Ordinary Type of Alcoho 

 Lamp 



