636  Determination  of  Methyl  Alcohol.     {AniseTp°tur' Jis™' 
A  NEW  AND  NOVEL  METHOD  OF  DETERMINING  THE 
AMOUNT  OF  METHYL  ALCOHOL  IN  MIXTURES 
OF  ETHYL  AND  METHYL  ALCOHOL.1 
By  William  G.  Toplis. 
Several  years  ago,  a  company  was  formed  in  Philadelphia  for 
the  production  of  denatured  alcohol,  by  a  process  that  held  certain 
advantages  in  economy  of  manufacture,  on  the  one  hand  and,  upon 
the  other,  freedom  from  domination  by  the  trusts  producing  wood 
alcohol.  The  company,  among  whose  stockholders  were  five  Phila- 
delphia druggists,  devoted  much  time  and  great  efforts  to  make  a 
going  concern  of  this  enterprise.  Opposition  appeared  in  several 
quarters,  of  which  the  most  important  was  that  in  the  office  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue.  It  developed  that  the  proposed 
process  was  in  conflict  with  certain  inflexible  rules  for  the  conduct 
of  fermentation  industries,  and  one  particularly  serious  objection 
was  set  forth  as  follows  in  the  exact  wording  of  the  then  Commis- 
isoner  of  Internal  Revenue,  R.  E.  Cabell:  "  The  matter  of  standard- 
izing the  product  or  permitting  it  to  pass  into  common  use  without 
analysis  of  every  part  of  it,  which  is  a  slow  and  expensive  process 
has  already  been  called  to  your  attention."  This  meant  that  we 
must  discover  some  ready  process  for  determining  the  amount  of 
methyl  alcohol  in  the  mixture  of  ethyl  and  methyl,  and  the  said 
process  must  be  rapid,  inexpensive  and  capable  of  operation  by  one 
of  ordinary  intelligence,  not  a  trained  chemist.  It  was  an  original 
problem,  with  several  troublesome  conditions — that  required  a  rad- 
ical departure  from  all  familiar  paths. 
To  begin,  therefore,  let  us  consider  the  basic  difference  between 
the  two  alcohols  here  set  forth  in  graphic  formulae : 
mol   12        Methyl  ale.  Ethyl  ale.        34  mol. 
wi   16  H  H  16  wt. 
Methyl  ale.  ...  HCOH  HCOH  _6 
32  H  H  C  H         46  ethyl  ale. 
H 
At  a  glance  these  formula?  show  that  there  is  considerable  more 
material  in  the  molecule  of  ethyl  alcohol  than  that  of  methyl  alcohol 
— at  the  same  time  thev  show  but  one  hvdroxyl  in  each  formula. 
1  Presented  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  Wilkesbarre,  June,  1918. 
