30 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL—ITS USES 
Heating and Illumination 
The most important of the uses of in- 
dustrial alcohol as far as the farmer is 
directly concerned are those included in 
heating and illumination. For these pur- 
poses the farmers of the country, when 
the processes are adjusted and the technic- 
al difficulties of production, manufactur- 
ing, and denaturing are overcome, will 
find alcohol extremely useful. Especially 
will this be true in localities remote from 
centers of the production of wood, coal, 
kerosene, gasoline, natural gas, and oil, 
which now are the chief heating and il- 
luminating agents. 
Alcohol Stoves 
The success of the alcohol stove de- 
pends largely upon the character of the 
wick, which must absorb the alcohol and 
be so adjusted as to give the necessary 
heating surface. By converting the alco- 
hol into a gas and burning the vapor thus 
formed the wick may be dispensed with 
and a more effective burner obtained. 
The general principles involved in heat- 
ing with alcohol are the same as for 
other heating substances. The only dif- 
ferences are in the methods of producing 
the combustion. Alcohol burns with a 
pale blue flame which is intensely hot. 
It is without smoke, and if there be any 
odor at all it is an agreeable and not a 
disagreeable one. The products of com- 
bustion of pure alcohol are water and car- 
bon dioxid. The latter gas should be 
conducted out of the room by the ordinary 
methods of ventilation. No form of 
burner should be allowed to pour the 
products of combustion into the room. The 
water which is formed is harmless, but 
the carbon dioxid, which is produced in 
large proportions, will soon vitiate the air 
of the room and tend to produce drowsi- 
ness, headache, and injury to health. The 
common methods of burning gas and kero- 
Sene in a room without ventilation are 
also objectionable for the same reason. 
Some form of ventilation by means of 
which the products could be removeg 
from the room through a chimney or 
otherwise is highly desirable. 
Stoves of many different kinds have 
been invented for burning alcohol. There 
are stoves for heating flatirons, soldering 
irons, crimping irons, roasting coffee, ete. 
Alcohol Lamps 
Alcohol can not be used directly for il- 
luminating purposes. The flame does not 
possess any notable illuminating power. In 
order that alcohol may be used for illu- 
mination it must be burned in a state of 
gas and the heat produced by the com- 
bustion utilized to produce incandescence 
in the ordinary mantle which surrounds 
the common gas flame for the same pur- 
pose. It has been discovered that when 
certain earths, such as thoria, in a state 
of fine subdivision, are subjected to the 
action of a high temperature, they become 
intensely white and produce by their in- 
candescence the maximum degree of il- 
lumination. The thoria is first deposited 
upon some substance such as cloth and 
so distributed that when the cloth burns 
away the particles of thoria remain in the 
original shape of the mantle. When held 
over the flame of gas or alcohol the par- 
ticles become incandescent. To adjust an 
alcohol lamp for this purpose it is only 
necessary to make an attachment where- 
by the alcohol is first converted into a 
vapor. In order to light such a lamp a 
portion of the alcohol must first be va- 
porized. 
It is evident that the amount of heat 
produced is to some extent a measure of 
the illuminating value when the incan- 
descent mantle is taken into consideration. 
It is the high temperature which produces 
the incandescence and therefore the gas 
which in burning gives the highest tem- 
perature, other conditions being the same, 
would be of the most value for illumina- 
tion. All of these points must be con- 
sidered to prevent the formation of wrong 
opinions concerning the efficiency of alco- 
hol for illumination, heating, and motive 
power, as compared with gasolene, which 
is the agent most used for these purposes, 
and which alcohol is expected to super- 
sede. 
