Alcohol Engines.
For some years France and Germany have used alcohol as a fuel in engines, no excise tax being imposed on alcohol employed for industrial purposes. On January 1, 1907, this will also be the case in the United States, so that we may expect alcohol to take a leading place as fuel in motors. “It has,” says Professor Elihu Thomson, “gallon for gallon less heating power than gasoline, but equal efficiency in an internal combustion engine, because it throws away less heat in waste gases and in the water jacket. A mixture of alcohol vapor with air stands a much higher compression than does a mixture of gasoline and air without premature explosion. . . . There is now beginning an application of the internal combustion engine for railroad cars on short lines which are feeders to main lines. The growth of this business may be hampered in the near future by the cost of gasoline. In this case alcohol, producible in unlimited amount, could be substituted.”
An important advantage in using alcohol is its comparative safety. In case of fire oils and gasolines float on the water intended to quench a blaze; alcohol blends with that water and the flame is subdued.
Whether oil, gasoline or alcohol be their fuel, internal combustion motors gain steadily in public acceptance. On the farm they are gradually displacing the horse. An engine, which costs nothing when it is idle, shells corn, saws wood, cuts fodder, grinds feed, separates and churns cream, drives a thrasher, turns a mill, lifts water, and performs a hundred other chores quickly, simply and cheaply.