54 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
The total capacity toward benzol production possessed by the coal 
annually produced in the United States is upward of 1,000,000,000 
gallons, 1 which in terms of gasoline represents about one-half of our 
annual consumption of the latter. Compared with gasoline, benzol 
yields better efficiency in the internal combustion engine, but presents 
a slight disadvantage in respect to use in cold weather. It may be 
used successfully in the ordinary gasoline motor by admitting a little 
more air than is customary for gasoline, or by mixing with gasoline. 
Alcohol is familiar to everyone and as a fuel offers the advantage 
that it can be made from organic products which reproduce them- 
selves from year to year and include vast quantities of materials that 
ordinarily go to waste. 2 Unlike the mineral fuels, therefore, it does 
not constitute a drain upon a reserve fixed in quantity. The differ- 
ence in effectiveness for motor use between alcohol and gasoline is 
slight ; for whereas gasoline yields a trifle more power to the gallon 
and is easier “ starting from the cold,” alcohol is safer, cleaner, and 
more pleasant as to exhaust odors. The capacity of this country in 
respect to alcohol production can not be closely stated, but if the out- 
put of alcoholic beverages is any criterion, 3 existing distilleries upon 
conversion could at once produce fuel alcohol to the extent of millions 
of gallons, whereas the substitution of waste products for grain would 
effect a great economy over the cost of denatured alcohol as made at 
present. If, in addition, the perplexing legal difficulties that now 
hedge in such a development could be circumvented, the use of indi- 
vidual manufactories on farms could readily furnish a perpetual 
supply of motor fuel at little cost, where a cheap motor fuel would 
have its most far-reaching social effect by tending to lower the cost 
of food. 4 
Artificial gas made from coal offers a convenient substitute for 
gasoline in certain types of stationary internal-combustion engines, 
while the suction producer plant, with its adaptability to the em- 
1 On the basis of a yield of 2 gallons to the ton of coal. 
2 Alcohol can be made from starches, sugars, wood waste, sulphite liquors from paper 
manufacture, peat, cornstalks, etc. Its cost in Germany several years ago was as low 
as 25 cents a gallon ; in England, 33 cents a gallon — prices comparing favorably with 
the present cost of gasoline in the United States. Rittman estimates on a prewar basis 
that alcohol would become a commercial fuel in the United States when gasoline exceeded 
35 cents a gallon. (Journ. Ind. and Eng. Chem., May, 1917, pp. 528-530.) 
3 It is worthy of note that the consumption of alcoholic beverages and of gasoline 
during 1916 in the United States was approximately equal ; each close to 2,000,000,000 
gallons, equivalent to a per capita consumption of about 20 gallons. 
4 Tropical countries will find fuel alcohol very economical because of the practically 
unlimited supply of raw material available for its manufacture and the decided advantages 
of its use over gasoline in very hot climates. The Tropics, with their rank growth of vege- 
tation, offer the most available energy source in sight, after coal, water power, and oil ; 
and hence may eventually take on a much greater importance in this respect than they 
new possess in all other respects. Their capacity for producing fuel alcohol and food offer 
an interesting prospect to resource pessimists. The extraction of castor oil from the 
castor bean and stalk also presents a promising prospect, as several barrels of oil can be 
obtained per acre and the oil can be made into motor fuel and lubricants. 
